Afterschool Slaughter Time
by ZabuFanfics
Summary: Beginning with the appearance of a new student, the lives of the members of the light music club are changed forever. Now faced with a seemingly unbreakable fate, the girls appear to be cursed to live their final days over and over again. But why, and how can they stop it from happening again? Rated M for unnecessary violence. The first story in the slaughter series.
1. I

Mio sat on the almost empty bus, looking out the window as the buildings rushed by. A feeling of excitement welled within her chest as the bus drew closer to her school. This year would be her third and final year, and she had big plans both for herself and for the light music club. This year was going to be their year, she could absolutely feel it. The only thing she had to be nervous about was the fact their school had finally made the decision to go full co-ed. Performing for boys as well as girls made her worry, especially if she were to suffer another… accident.

The bus stopping broke her from her trance, and the sudden distant sound of music caught her attention. A boy about her age walked onto the bus, eyes fixed on the floor. He wore the uniform from her school, and his black hair concealed his eyes. And as he made his way to a seat, the entire time Mio couldn't help but stare. She'd never felt these feelings before, at least not after seeing another person. A light blush appeared on her face, her eyes focused on the boy. He walked slowly past her, not even sparing a passing glance. Mio felt the need to follow him into the back of the bus, try to start up a conversation- something! But all she could do was sit and stare. Then it hit her, the feelings that had suddenly lit up inside of her: She was in love.

* * *

"Whaaat?" Ritsu asked, leaning over the table in the light music room, looking at Mio in surprise. Everyone was, in fact. Mio looked down at her knees, shifting uncomfortably in her seat under everyone's gaze. Even Azusa, who normally would be the one out of all of them to treat things in a more mature manner, looked like she was about to leap from her seat and do exactly what Ritsu was doing.

"S-Stop staring!" Mio finally told them sternly, blushing like mad. "Is that fact that I found someone I like all that surprising?" Yui silently and empty-headedly nodded her head, earning a groan from Mio.

"We all figured you would be too shy to even look at a guy," Ritsu laughed, "But now you're telling us you stared at him the entire bus ride?" She pressed her fingers to her lips as she chuckled gleefully "Our little Mio is a pervert."

"I am not!" Mio yelled, trying to push Ritsu who, by now, had invaded her personal space for far too long away.

"I think it's wonderful you found a guy you like," Mugi added, pouring Mio more tea, "And love at first sight, too? That's almost like a fairytale! It makes me wish I could find someone like that."

"Me too," Yui said excitedly, raising her hand in the air.

"I-I really can't wait to see him again," Mio sighed dreamily, despite how embarrassed she was about having told her friends. "But he has such an unapproachable air around him; I don't think I'll ever have the courage to talk to him…"

"NONSENSE!" Sawako finally shouted, slamming her empty cup of tea onto the table. Mugi jumped, trying to steady the table so no one's tea spilled over.

'I was hoping she wouldn't say anything,' Mio thought to herself, wishing she could just disappear. Instead she prepared herself for the long and angry rant that Sawako was about to bestow upon her. Their adviser was known for forcing them to do things when she decided their plan of action was unfit by her own terms. She wished she had just watched what she said.

"You won't get anywhere just looking at the guy!" Sawako complained, getting up and resting her hands all-too-firmly upon her shoulders and leaned over so her face was level with Mio's. She leaned away uncomfortably, looking at her friends for help, but no one offered. No one dared invoke the wrath of Sawako. "What you should be doing is taking charge! It's your final year as a high schooler; you should live it to its full extent!"

"Or we'll end up like you, right?" Ritsu joked. Sawako threw her a hateful glare and Ritsu's grin quickly morphed into a frightened frown as she backed away in fear that she would leap across the table (It wasn't something she would put past her.)

"Anyways," Sawako hissed, turning her attention to the embarrassed Mio. "As I was saying, you need to do something big!"

"Big?! B-But-"

"You should take every opportunity like it's your last, and savor it before someone steals it away!" She grasped Mio's face at both sides, forcing her to look forward. "Do not turn away from your goals, no problem is to great! You need to seize this opportunity and-"

"You should send him a love letter!" Yui interrupted.

"I like Yui-sempai's idea." Azusa agreed, which was responded to with a mushy hug from Yui, who seemed very happy someone agreed with her idea.

"If Azu-nyan thinks it's a good idea, it's a good idea," She said gleefully, obviously very proud for having come up with an idea someone else agreed with.

"I think leaving him a love note is a great idea," Mugi nodded. "It's a classic, is it not?"

"But I don't even know his name!" Mio told them, pulling away from Sawako. "How am I supposed to leave him a note if I don't even know his name?"

"You can leave that to me!" Ritsu announced, pointing to herself as she stood up from her seat. "Chances are, poor little Mio will be too embarrassed at this point to say two words to him." Mio glared at her, but didn't object to the fact she was too shy to ask him herself. "So I'll ask him for her!"

"But how do you even expect to find him?" Mio asked, not exactly feeling like she was behind the whole Ritsu interrogating the object of her affections idea very much. Chances are, she would scare him away more than she would by just muttering, stuttering and making everything awkward.

"Based on your description, he shouldn't be that hard to find." Ritsu assured her. "I'll just listen for the music."

"Ah…" Mio tried to come up with some sort of excuse as to why Ritsu shouldn't try and help her, but she couldn't think of anything to say. She wouldn't be able to face him herself, and just loving him from afar would torture her for sure. She regretted it, but Ritsu's offer seemed horribly tempting- tempting enough to take. "Fine… But don't you dare scare him, okay? All I want is his name!"

"Just leave it to me, don't worry," Ritsu grinned, giving her friend a friendly pat on the head to reassure her. "How can I screw up asking for a name?"

* * *

After school the next day, Ritsu began her mission. She searched through the crowds of people leaving for home and going to their club rooms. Based on Mio's description of him, he didn't seem like the person who would join any clubs, so she quickened her pace towards the exit, rudely pushing through bodies and nonchalantly apologizing.

"Black hair, loud music," she chanted to herself, walking on her tip toes and squinting. "Black hair… loud music…" Coming up empty handed from where she was, she dropped back to her feet and hurried to another location and repeated what she had done before. "Where are you? Come out, come out wherever you-!" Suddenly, she heard loud music leaking from headphones pass behind her. Whipping herself around, she smiled, overcome with relief. There he was, or at least she assumed it was him. Black hair, head hung low, the awful din emitting from his headphones- She had to time to second guess her judgment as she ran up behind him and grasped his shoulder. The boy merely gasped, turning around quickly to look at whoever had grabbed him.

"Um…" Ritsu mumbled, trying to figure out what to say without sounding too awkward. It occurred to her, now that he was looking right at her, that she hadn't actually planned what she wanted to tell him. For a lack of anything better to say, she lifted her hand in greeting, giving him a warm smile.

"Hi there." The boy seemed confused for a moment, as if he didn't even understand what she had said. Maybe those headphones he had peeled away from his ears had damaged his hearing. "Um… Hello?"

"Hello…" The boy replied silently, looking like he was about to flee from the scene. Ritsu tried to put on a welcoming look, trying her best not to scare him as she readied her question.

"I was just wondering… This is going to sound really weird, but… what exactly is your name?" Another long silence followed from the boy, and Ritsu's brow twitched in annoyance. Still, she pushed forward. "I'm Ritsu, by the way! Tainaka Ritsu." She hoped her introduction would will him to answer. He mumbled something, but over the chatter of passing students she couldn't quite understand. "What was that?" She leaned in closer, just in case he mumbled again.

"Shun," He repeated, loud enough so she could hear it from the distance she was at- which was uncomfortably close. "…Tono Shun." Having gotten the information she needed, Ritsu smiled and backed up a bit. She chuckled in victory, her mission now complete.

"Tono Shun," she repeated. Shun nodded and she beamed all the wider and roughly rested her hand on his shoulder, making him jump. "Tono Shun it is, then!" Turning on her heel she looked over her shoulder. "Well, I need to head off to my club room. Thank you!" Shun mumbled something in response- she gathered it was a very confused, "you're welcome"- and with that she ran to the light music room to share the news.

* * *

"Hurry up," Ritsu urged. She was pushing Mio from behind, who had positioned herself a little over an arms-length away from Shun's locker and remained stubbornly rooted to the spot. The love letter she had written, with the help of everyone else of course, was clutched in her hands, wrinkling the light-pink paper. Sawako kept on insisting they add a spritz of perfume, and Mugi happened to have some on hand (for whatever reason) but Mio refused, having been goaded already at that point into using pink paper and all sorts of mushy, uncharacteristically flowery dialogue in the letter itself.

"But what if he thinks I'm a bother?" Mio asked. She had given every excuse as to why she shouldn't leave the note, as harmless as the contents were. Despite how the wording was much to girlish, even for her, it was just a request for him to meet her on the roof for lunch.

"Who in the right mind thinks a note from a cute girl is a bother?" Ritsu asked, a little angry at Mio's persistent hesitation. "Now throw that letter in there before someone sees!" And with a strong push she sent Mio stumbling towards the locker.

"Fine!" Mio cried, hesitantly opening the locker door. She looked back at Ritsu once more, who glared back at her with folded arms. She had come this far, there was no way her friend was going to let her drop out now. Groaning in frustration, she tossed the letter into the locker and immediately ran, a blush on her cheeks over something as simple as leaving a letter in a locker.

"You forgot to shut the door!" Ritsu yelled, but Mio had already run far enough away that she couldn't hear- and chances are, she probably wouldn't have returned anyway. Ritsu sighed, walking over to shut the locker door for her just as Shun just so happened to walk around the corner. She jumped, quickly slamming the door shut and cursing to herself. She nervously looked back and forth, trying to come up with an excuse on the fly.

"People shouldn't carelessly leave their locker doors open like that," She laughed nervously- not necessarily to Shun- as she slowly walked around him. "Things could get stolen, you know…" Once she had walked all the way around him, she quickly picked up her pace, running down the hall and shouting for Mio to wait up. Standing still for a second, Shun watched as Ritsu disappeared around a corner before walking over to his locker and opening the door she had slammed shut. A pink envelope slid out, and he managed to narrowly catch it before it fluttered to the floor. Looking at it in surprise he carefully took the letter out of the envelope, as if it was some sort of priceless artifact. Reading it over he looked in the direction Ritsu had ran, a smile inching across his face.

"Ritsu," He said to himself, pressing the letter against his chest. "Tainaka Ritsu…"

* * *

Mio sat on the school roof the next day during lunch, fidgeting uncontrollably. Two boxed lunches sat beside her as she nervously turned her eyes to the sky. It could have only been a few minutes, but it also could have been an hour, but she knew for sure it shouldn't take anyone that long just to come to the roof. The feeling of rejection stabbed at her as she looked to the doors leading to the stairs as her shoulders sank.

"Maybe I shouldn't have left it after all," she told herself. "He probably thinks I'm weird." She took both of the lunches and started to stand up when someone walked through the doors. Looking up in surprise, Mio heaved a sigh of relief, and then became increasingly nervous all at the same time. There was the very person she was hoping to see, and the sight brought a shy blush to her cheeks. Shun looked at her, almost confused and, much to Mio's surprise, started to turn around.

"Wait!" Mio called, reaching out her hand. He quickly stopped, and looked over his shoulder. "Please don't go!" To her surprise he obeyed, and was now fully facing her, which obviously cued everything she had planned to say to leave her. She opened her mouth, now with absolutely nothing to tell him. Mouth agape, she looked around, hoping her surroundings would give her something to comment on.

"I…I made you lunch!" She told him, blushing as she held out the lunch she had made for him. Her eyes were tightly shut as she flinched, ever so sure she would be turned down. But instead, he merely walked over to her, taking the lunch she had offered him, and graced her with a quick-and-to-the-point, "thanks". Mio's eyes lit up and she felt like hugging him and thanking him over and over again despite herself for accepting it, but she restrained herself. The very thought of doing such a thing made her dizzy from the heat of her blushing, anyway.

"Um… want to sit down?" She asked, blushing. Shun didn't respond, only nodded, and sat beside her. Mio nervously fidgeted, feeling on top of the world as she watched Shun eat the lunch she had made for him. She was so enveloped in her joy that she hardly touched her own lunch the entire time. They hardly shared any words, just empty small talk about the club Mio was a part of, and if he was a part of any clubs (he wasn't). But Mio couldn't have been happier.

"Thank you for coming," Mio finally said near the end of lunch period, deeply bowing. "When I left you the note, I was so sure you wouldn't respond, so… Thank you!" She bowed again, hear forehead nearly touching the ground.

"You sent-" Shun mumbled, but Mio, in her joy, hardly heard, and continued on excitedly.

"Um, if you wouldn't mind, maybe we could go to the shopping center sometime together!" She offered, smiling from ear to ear. "I know this really good crepe shop and-" The sound of the bell interrupted her. In a rush, she asked. "So, would you?" She eagerly looked at him, her cheeks red and her mind reeling from having been so forward. It surprised even her that she had managed all that without a single slip up or stutter. Maybe love was making her more bold?

"…Sure." Shun mumbled, but Mio heard, and she responded with a happy little cheer before she bowed again, trying to compose herself as seem a little more level-headed and polite.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed. Shun only nodded in response, lips pressed tightly together, but his silence didn't bother Mio in the slightest. "I'll see you around then!" With that, she quickly ran off to class, all smiles, leaving Shun alone on the roof top.

* * *

"Sooo, how did the date go?" Yui asked Mio, who was currently buried in writing something. With her emotions dancing about in her head as they were, she felt it best to put them to paper in the form of lyrics.

"It wasn't a date, Yui," Mio sighed, blushing, "We just had lunch!"

"A date is a date!" Sawako snapped.

"You're just jealous that Mio has a boyfriend now and you don't." Ritsu taunted her teacher fearlessly. "And I agree with Yui, tell us!"

"It's none of your business." Mio sighed, "And we should be focusing on practicing, not on who I do or do not date, right, Azusa?" She turned to her, sure that she of all people would agree with her plan of action. But, much to her surprise and dismay, Azusa was looking at her with stars in her eyes.

"Please?" Azusa asked. "We just want to know how it went…"

"Even you…" Mio sighed in defeat, trying to recall how she and Shun's meeting went. She'd gotten so worked up, she could hardly remember. "We just talked, that's all…" She paused, thinking over if she should tell them the rest. It had potential to have to potency of a small bomb among her friends. "…And then I asked him to go to the mall with me." Everyone's eyes lit up as Mio mumbled the rest of her sentence, save for Sawako, who remained in a seemingly unimpressed silence.

"Did he say yes?" Mugi asked excitedly.

"It doesn't matter, now let's-"

"Did he!?" Ritsu asked, a wide grin on her face. Mio flinched, the volume of her friend's voice making her ears ring. There was no way they were going to drop it, especially Ritsu.

"…Yes." Her answer was met by excited squeals and a warm hug from Yui.

"Congratulations, sempai!" Azusa smiled.

"That's our Mio!" Ritsu laughed, smacking Mio on the back, who choked on her own air as she did so. She doubled over, coughing, with Ritsu looking on and acting like she had done nothing wrong. "Getting all the guys with her womanly charms!"

"Heeey," Yui asked, looking closely at the paper that Mio had been writing on. "Are these lyrics?"

"AH!" Mio exclaimed, snatching the paper away from view.

"Is it for Shun?" Ritsu asked. Mio hesitated, pressing the paper close to her chest and looking away. "Well, is it?"

"Shut up, Ritsu!" Mio snapped in embarrassment, facing away from her friend.

"So it is a song for him!" Ritsu laughed, skipping around Mio so she was facing her. "Let me see! Let me see!" Mio only held the paper closer to herself, keeping Ritsu's curious fingers from snatching it away.

"It's not for you, so don't look at it!" Mio snapped, giving her friend a warning glare.

"Oh fine, you kill-joy." Ritsu complained, raising her hands in defeat and frowning in dissatisfaction. "But you're going to at least show Shun, right?" Mio didn't answer at first, but Ritsu continued to boldly pry. "Riiight?"

"It's time to practice!" Mio announced, ignoring Ritsu and getting up from her seat. She stuffed the paper into the pocket of her skirt and picked up her bass.

"It will be a waste if you write it and never show him, come on!"

"Leave it be," Mugi told her, taking her place behind her keyboard. "I'm sure she will." She looked to Mio, smiling happily. Mio looked back at her, blushing, as she picked up her base.

"Let's just practice, please." She pleaded, strumming her base. If they- or rather Ritsu- pushed any further, she'd probably be forced to leave.

"Okay, okay, we get it. You're too embarrassed to show anyone your song, no surprise." Ritsu laughed and rolled her eyes as she sloppily sat down behind her drum set. Mio turned around angrily, totally ready to give her a smack, but Ritsu interrupted, hitting her drumsticks above her head and shouting. "1-2-3-4!"

* * *

Ritsu walked down the empty corridors of the school alone. Out of anger, Mio had sentenced her to cleaning up the light music room- which basically meant she waited around until she was sure everyone was gone and left the room a mess, as usual. And as she approached the lockers, careful to make sure none of the members of the club were around, she heard the familiar sound of music blasting.

"Shun?" she looked around the corner to find him standing in the middle of one of the rows, almost mindlessly. "Hey! Shun!" He must have managed to hear her over the music somehow, because he turned around to face her. She waved enthusiastically as she ran up to him.

"Congratulations!" She told him, giving him a thumbs up as he pulled his large headphones down around his neck.

"Congratulations about what?" He asked her as she reached into her locker to switch her indoor shoes for her outdoor shoes. She looked over to him, cocking an eyebrow.

"You know, with Mio?" Ritsu told him, slipping her shoes on. "I wish I was dating someone, you two make me feel jealous." She patted him on the shoulder. "You'd better treat Mio nicely. I would hate to see someone hurt my best friend, if you catch my drift." She playfully made a fist and shoved it in his face. Shun said nothing, but she assumed he understood.

"Well, I need to head home now." She told him, running around him. She trotted backwards for a short while, long enough to give him a friendly wave and say, "See you!" Shun remained silent as she ran off, leaving him alone again. If she had stuck around long enough she would have seen him clench his teeth angrily as he clenched a note she hadn't noticed tightly in his hands.

* * *

Mio paced nervously inside the light music room, her heart frantically beating against her chest. She had gone through with her own plans of action, rather than turning to the others for advice. She figured she'd only be embarrassed by Ritsu again anyway, so she had carried out her plans on her own without telling a soul.

She had placed a note in his locker, asking him to come up to the light music room alone after school.

"Calm down," she told herself, looking down at the lyrics on the paper. She had finished the song that she had written for him, and she had finally gathered up the courage to sing it for him. She blushed as she mumbled the first lyrics of the song, feeling almost like he was in the room already: overwhelmed. And, as she tried to calm herself down with a few, cleansing breaths, the door suddenly flew open. Mio jumped, frightened, as she turned around, unable to withhold a surprised squeak. Instead of Shun, however, there stood Yui, Mugi and Ritsu, looking around confused.

"What are you guys doing here?" Mio asked. "We don't have practice today, I thought you knew!" She quickly hid the paper behind her back.

"But what about the notes you left us?" Mugi asked, looking confused along with everyone else.

"What notes?" Mio questioned, raising an eyebrow. "I don't remember leaving you guys any notes…"

"But you did!" Ritsu told her, showing hers off. "You told us to come here for an emergency meeting!"

"I didn't send you guys anything, though!" Mio argued, fearing that Shun would step in any second and her plan to finally fully confess her feelings would be ruined.

"And…Mio?" Yui asked, looking concerned. "Why is Shun here?"

"Shun? Shun's not-" She quickly turned around to see Shun, who was glairing not just at her, but at all of them. Mio felt a cold shiver run up her spine. "Shun! What are you doing h-" She was cut off by a strange, clicking noise followed by a shock that seemed to run all throughout her body. She heard the distant screams of her friends as her vision suddenly went black and the room swooped passed her vision.

"Mio!" She heard Ritsu scream before she blacked out completely.

* * *

Mio finally came around, unable to move her arms or her legs. Dizzily, she looked around, her vision still very blurry. Everything was a mix of different colored blobs that danced before her vision, and her head ached just to look at them. She could hear muted sobs and cries all around her, and silent pleads also echoed in her ears. Trying to stand, a frighteningly strong pain shot up from her legs. She couldn't help but scream, as the sharp pain fully brought her around, her vision, along with every other sense, sharpening. She was on the floor of the light music room, and she could feel the burn of rope against the now raw skin of her wrists that bound her arms behind her. She could see Mugi and Yui, both huddled together, hands tied behind their backs as well, crying.

"Mio! Mio, oh my god!" Mio turned beside her to find Ritsu sitting beside her, tears running down her cheeks and a look of pure terror in her eyes. "Mio…" She sobbed desperately, trying to make her way over closer to her friend.

"Ritsu!" Mio exclaimed in a panic. "What's going on?" She tried to shuffle closer, only to have the same, sharp pain stop her. She screamed once more, looking down to her legs. Gasping, she felt sick at the sight. Her legs were littered with holes, each one releasing an oozing stream of warm blood that she could now clearly feel. Whimpering, she turned away, the feeling of nausea finally getting the best of her as she vomited on the floor beside her. Bent to the side, coughing up a brown, runny liquid, an amused laugh reached her ears. Shakily, she looked up, avoiding eye contact with her legs. There was Shun, looking down at her with a wide grin, sitting casually at their table, feet propped up on the table top.

"S..Shun!" She exclaimed, feeling tears both of fear and sadness gather behind her eyes. "What did you-!" she gasped as she saw the object he was toying with. Loosely gripped within his right hand was a gun, and he twirled it around in his fingers like it was a harmless fake.

"Have a nice sleep?" He laughed, getting up walking over to her. Mio attempted to squirm back, even though it pained her to move, but she only managed to flail about in place and helplessly squeal, like a cornered pig about to be slaughtered.

"Shun… You… No, you couldn't have!" Mio cried, tears now clouding her vision. She leaned away from him, but kept her gaze locked on his frightening form. "You couldn't have…" She paused, feeling herself become choked up as her tears finally spilled over.

"Couldn't have what?" He asked. "Couldn't have done this?" He casually pointed the gun at her, shooting another bullet into her leg. The scream of the bullet dulled her hearing for a moment, but the pain was so immense, Mio couldn't even scream. Only a choked gasp passed through her lips as blood splattered up against her face. It was so horrible, for a moment, she forgot how to breath. Shun laughed again, amused with her pain.

"Mio!" Ritsu screamed before turning to Shun with a look full of desperation. "Stop it! Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!" She wildly begged him. Shun only graced her with a cold glance, walking over to her and pressing the barrel against the bottom of her chin to lift her head so she was facing him. She closed her eyes tightly, refusing to look at him while she sobbed. Shun's smile vanished into disappointment as he let her head limply fall back down and walked back to the table.

Meanwhile, Yui nervously looked around, leaning over ever so slightly to Mugi.

"I'm going to try and call for help, okay?" She whispered. Mugi sobbed before nodding, unable to form words. Yui nodded back, sitting up straight and readying her cry for help with a long, deep breath.

"HE-!" A gunshot overpowered her cry as blood flew through the air. From Mio's point of view, it was hard to contemplate what had just happened beyond the haze of her own, overwhelming pain, but a gruesome scene and a shrill cry from Mugi answered her questions. There was Yui, a wide hole now on the side of her face, exposing the insides of her skull that now looked like some sort of chunky pudding rather than what had once been a brain. Blood quickly emptied from the hole, and what had splattered forth was all over Mugi- dying her blue uniform red- who was too terrified to even look away from Yui's motionless corpse. Sobbing like mad, eyes wide with fear, she tried to scoot farther away from the ever-growing puddle of blood flowing from Yui's head wound and pooling around her now dead body.

"No, no, no, no…" she cried quietly, shaking her head. She looked up to Shun, who was half-pointing the gun at her. "Please… I beg you, please… I won't do anything!" Shun silently contemplated her request, slowly lowering his weapon. Mugi still was deeply panicked, but she hunched over slightly, relieved. But then, a crazed smile appeared on Shun's lips as he lifted the gun and pulling the trigger without pause. A quick scream was choked off by the sound of blood splattering, as Mugi fell beside Yui, splashing against the bloody puddle. Her body lay motionless on the ground, and away from Ritsu and Mio, but they knew, unfortunately, what her fate had been, and the rate at which the puddle of blood beneath her was growing told the whole story.

"Mugi! Yui!" Mio screamed. "No! NO!" She turned to Shun, whose attention was now on her. "Why?!" She sobbed, her vision blurring from the heavily flowing tears. "Why are you doing this?" Shun didn't answer, but started walking towards her, the hand that was holding the gun swinging casually at his side. Mio sobbed frantically, trying to drag herself further back, but she was stopped by Ritsu's drums, which she had been tied to. Looking back in panic, she cried uncontrollably, starting to violently thrash back and forth despite the pain. Her head bashed against the drum set, and the rope binding her hands dug deeper into her skin, but she still continued to madly flail about in desperate hope to escape. Only a sick laugh caused her to stop as she slowly shifted her gaze in front of her. There was Shun, squatting down so the two of them were eye to eye. Through his long bangs, Mio could see his eyes: black, impossibly deep and wide with a frightening madness.

"No," she whispered, flinching. She felt the barrel of the gun brush the hair out of her face, the cold metal slowly sweeping across her sweaty skin. The very feeling made her want to scream, but she dared not make a sound aside from her sobbing she couldn't bring herself to stop. Then, she felt something being thrust into the front of her uniform. Gasping she looked down to see the note she had left him that morning buried in the front of her jacket.

"I believe that belongs to you." He told her happily as he stood to his feet.

"Why…" Mio whimpered, hunching over, feeling the paper crumple against her skin.

"Do you even need to ask?" Shun hissed, pointing the gun at her. Mio gasped, feeling like the floor itself had disappeared beneath her and she was falling to her inevitable doom. "Any last words?" Mio cried at first, desperate squeaks and screams leaping from her mouth as she struggled. Shun merely laughed, his gun following every single one of her quick, frightened moves.

"I…" she cried, desperation getting the best of her. "I LOVE YOU!"

The sound of another gunshot screamed through the air. But the frightening sound was also accompanied with the sound of someone opening the door to the club.

Azusa entered the room to the sound of a gun being fired and a mad wail. She screamed herself, ducking and looking around frightened. Only when she lifted her head did she finally see the horrific scene. The bodies of Yui, Mugi lying at the far edge of the room atop a pool of blood, and to her left were Ritsu and Mio, Ritsu's mouth wide open as she silently screamed, and Mio, who still had fresh tears flowing slowly down her cheeks, accompanied by a deep crimson river of blood flowing from her forehead. Her body lay limply against Ritsu's drums, her now empty eyes looking back at her, still wide with fright. And standing before her was Shun, the once object of her affection, smile on his face and blood that had splattered from the corpses all over his face and body. There were no words she could say, nothing she could do to describe the horror that was lying before her. All she could do was scream and then run.

"Help!" she shrieked as she started running down the stairs. Another gunshot rang through the air, as a sharp pain shot through her leg, causing her to lose balance. Blood from the gunshot wound in the back of her knee flew through the air, as did Azusa as she fell down the rest of the stairs, crying out in pain as she hit every step, leaving a bloody trail. She slid across the floor as she reached the bottom and, in a panic, she looked to the top of the stairs to see Shun slowly making his way down them in an almost teasing way. Squeaking in pain and in fear she desperately tried to get away. Her wounded leg would not allow her to stand, so instead she began to claw her way down the hall way, crying out as she did. Shun's slow steps echoed behind her, and with each one that reached her ears she cried for help as she dragged herself down the empty corridor, nails digging into the floor. But there was no answer, just her own voice echoing back.

However, much to her luck, Sawako emerged from around the corner, panting and a look of fear in her eyes. Obviously, she had heard the young girl's screams, and had run full speed from wherever she had been in the building.

"Azusa, what's going on?" She asked, running over to her. "You're hurt! What happened!?"

"Sawa-chan, stop!" Azusa cried, realizing the danger she had just put her teacher in, but her plea was ignored, and it quickly became too late to tell her again. Shun had stepped down from the final step, and Sawako was clear in his sights, and without a word to warn her, he pulled the trigger. Azusa watched in fear as a hole opened up in Sawako's chest, blood quickly escaping it, seemingly in slow motion. She hunched over in pain, falling to the floor in a fettle position as she groaned and gasped for breath.

"Oh, I missed," Shun sighed, apathetically, walking up to Sawako. She looked up, hands clenching the bullet would. Blood dripped through her fingers and onto the floor.

"You-" she rasped, but that was all she managed to say before she was shot a second time, this time right in the neck. Azusa screamed, watching a heavy spray of blood exit the wound as Sawako limply fell to the floor, a few more painful gasps escaping her before she fell completely silent, her eyes becoming dull and lifeless. Azusa continued to scream, as if somehow it would wake her fallen teacher up.

"What a noisy brat," She heard Shun groan over her screams. At that point, feeling lightheaded from blood loss, the fact that there was no hope for her became all too clear. Holding her breath, she buried her face into the floor, awaiting the final blow. "It's time you joined your friends."

From the light music room Ritsu heard the third gunshot. She shrieked, trying desperately to free herself, sobbing and sniffling.

"NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOO!" She cried, slowly losing her strength to free herself. Her jerking motions became weaker as tears poured down her face, falling against the floor that was slowly being overtaken by blood spilling from Mio. But as soon as Shun reentered, her will to escape returned.

"GIVE THEM BACK!" she screamed, thrashing madly, "GIVE MY FRIENDS BACK!"

"Shhhhhh," He whispered, holding the gun to his lips as he knelt down in front of her, stroking under her chin with the finger of his spare hand. Ritsu gasped, pulling away.

"Don't be like that," He whispered, firmly grasping her chin as he forced her to look at him. "Shhhh, don't cry. Can't you see I've done all this for you?" He brought his face closer to hers, so much that she felt his lips caress the skin on her neck. She shivered as she heard him inhale deeply. "Ritsu," He whispered lustfully into her ear. "Now I have you all. To. My. Self."

"Stop it…" Ritsu whispered, trying and failing to jerk out of his grasp. She felt his sweaty, blood covered fingers run through her hair and gently remove her hair band. She made no move to stop him, but refused to look him in the eye.

"But I can't, Ritsu, I love you too much to stop." Shun chuckled, letting go of her chin and pulling back. "But I need to go now. I'll return for you." Ritsu sobbed in response, hunched over feeling defiled and weak. And her cries only escalated as she heard him leave and close the door behind him. Everyone was gone, taken from her, and she could do nothing about it. Their bodies were laid out before her, silently blaming her for their fate.

"I'm sorry…" She sobbed, her body shaking uncontrollably. "I'm so sorry!"

* * *

"Ritsu, Ritsu, Ritsu," Shun chanted to himself. He had drifted far away from the school and the scene of the crime, and had situated himself in an alleyway, hidden away from the street lights. He took the hair band from his pocket, running it under his nose to smell Ritsu's sweet scent.

"She's mine," He laughed, clutching the hair band close to himself. "She's all mine!" Suddenly, search lights lit up the ally way.

"This is the police," An angry voice yelled over a megaphone. "Come out with your hands up and drop any weapons you are holding!" Shun simply laughed, staggering up, and walked out of the alleyway, still clutching the gun.

"Drop the gun, boy!" The police officer yelled. Shun did no such thing, only looked at the group of police amused. His eyes were wide and his eyebrows were raised in an almost energetic manner. He laughed in his throat, the quiet chuckle soon escalating into a loud and insane laugh. The police shrunk back, looking amongst each other, confused, as he howled.

"NO ONE CAN TAKE HER FROM ME!" He shrieked, hysterically laughing as he pressed the barrel of the gun against his head. "SOON SHE'LL JOIN ME IN DEATH, AND NO ONE WILL TEAR US APART!"

"Don't do it, boy!" The policeman with the megaphone bellowed.

"NOBODY!"

A final gunshot rang through the streets.

* * *

Ritsu sat at her drums. Bleeding, painful rope burns surrounded her wrists from when she had struggled, eventually freeing herself. She had dragged the bodies of her dead friends all around her, laying each of them by their instruments. Her hands and clothes were dyed in her friends blood, but she acted like it wasn't even there.

"Common, guys," she laughed, weakly, softly hitting her drums in an off-time beat. "Let's practice. We need to practice. Our next live is going to be soon. We need to be prepared…"


	2. II

"A boyfriend!?"

The exclamation seemed to reach every corner of the fast food joint. Yui flinched as all four of her friends shouted in unison, disbelievingly. She hadn't expected it to be such a shock.

"We met in the music store a few days ago. He's a foreign exchange student from America" Yui explained, scooting lower and lower into her seat, feeling the pressure of the unwavering gaze of the other four, all of whom still seemed very skeptical about it all. The painful silence gave her the cue to continue deeper into her newfound (and what seemed to be believed to be nonexistent) love life. "We talked for a while- we seem to have a lot of the same tastes in music and such, so we got off really well… And, well, one thing led to another and we exchanged phone numbers."

"Have you gone on a date yet?" Ritsu asked in a taunting tone. The other three looked at her disapprovingly, but no one was prepared for Yui's answer.

"Um…one," she mumbled, nervously sipping her water. Turning her gaze back from her drink to her friends, she was met with excited smiles, and one very shocked open mouth from Ritsu.

"How was it!?" Azusa asked inquisitively.

"Yeah, tell us!" Mio chimed in. Yui scooted back, feeling overwhelmed by it all. Even Mio seemed eager to pry- Mio, who would probably melt into a nervous puddle if she were in the same situation. It really must have been a bigger deal than she realized, for her to get a boyfriend over break.

"It was fine, we just talked about things we liked, and I told him about the light music club." She told them quickly, putting her hands in front of her as if she expected to deflect something. And by the way Ritsu as looking at her, it seemed all too likely something was going to fly through the air.

"How did you do it?" She asked in awe, jaw on the floor. "I mean… _YOU_of all people…" She paused, a sarcastic smile creeping into place. "But, now that you've learned all these new things about him, I'm sure you've forgotten everything else." Her comment was met with a fist to the back of her head from Mio.

"Ritsu, don't be rude." She groaned.

"No, no, I haven't forgotten how to play Gita," Yui assured them with a laugh. "But… what song are we playing for our first live again?"

'No way! She actually forgot!' Everyone thought in unison as they stared at Yui in shock, who looked back at them with a blank stare as if nothing were wrong about it.

"You're really something, you know that?" Azusa asked. Yui merely responded with a vapid smile, and went back to enjoying her burger. All things considered, she was completely happy.

"Not that I'm not happy for her…" Mugi whispered to Mio, concerned. "But I can't help but worry about her boyfriend."

"I know what you mean," Mio silently answered, giving Yui, who seemed to be enveloped in enjoying her meal now, a worried glance. "But I'm sure they'll both be fine."

* * *

Mio jumped as the sudden sound of her ring tone filled her once quiet room. Quickly looking from her homework- which now had been ruined by a quick and unintentional stroke of her pen across the paper- to her clock, which read 11:30 PM, she cursed to herself.

"Who could be calling this late?" She groaned, flipping the phone open and offering a very stern hello. Her answer wasn't met by a voice on the other line, but the silent sound of sobbing. Throwing her concern aside, Mio felt very much annoyed after the sobbing continued for another 30 seconds.

"Who is this?" Mio asked, attempting to try and do her homework at the same time. "Is this you, Ritsu? If I haven't told you a million times already, it's too late to 'swing by the convenience store and grab some snacks'! Fake crying isn't going to-"

"I-I'm sorry!" A totally different voice muttered on the other line.

"Oh… Y-Yui!" Mio exclaimed, looking up from her paper again. Instantly, she felt awful over having gotten annoyed.

"I-I forgot… I was on the p-phone," Yui explained between hiccups.

'That's so her,' Mio thought, deciding not to tell her seemingly distressed friend her jab aloud. Instead, she asked, "What's wrong?" It took a few seconds for Yui to respond, caught up in crying so much she could hardly utter anything past the first word. Mio waited as patiently as she could for Yui to finally find the words.

"It- It's Kevin."

"Kevin? Kevin who?"

"My boyfriend," Yui sobbed. Mio could hear the sadness in her voice grow stronger as Yui choked out the final word. Prying herself from her schoolwork, Mio gave her full attention to Yui.

"What happened?" She asked. "Did he hurt you? Where are you?"

"No! He… He didn't do… anything! I… I…" The rest of Yui's sentence was drowned out in sobs. The fact she couldn't get to the point because of being so upset was starting to worry Mio rather than annoy her.

"You what?" She asked in a soft tone in an attempt not to startle the distraught girl any farther.

"We just had a fight… and… I was so frustrated I said a lot of things… a lot of things I didn't mean… and I hung up while he was talking!"

"What kinds of things?"

"I… I don't remember!" Mio held the phone away from her face as she sighed. It wasn't surprising that Yui would be forgetful in any situation, but now it was going to be difficult to help her. Nevertheless, she brought the phone back, ready to give the best advice she could muster.

"Look, you need to call him back _right now_!" Mio urged, "If you don't, he'll only be hurt even more, okay?"

"Uh-huh…" Yui sniffled.

"You need to apologize, even if you don't remember what you said. A little 'I'm sorry' can go a long way when you don't wait to say it. Will you do that?"

"Y-Yes."

"Alright, I'm hanging up now," Mio told her softly. "And as soon as I do, you're going to call him, okay?"

"Mmhmm."

"Good."

"I'm sorry for bothering you," Yui muttered.

"It's okay." Mio assured her. "Now go call and apologize!"

"Right!" And before Mio could bid her goodnight, Yui quickly hung up. Biting her lip, Mio returned to her homework, unable to fully concentrate now that there was Yui she had to worry about. She could hardly handle being in a band, her having to handle the romantic feelings toward and of another person seemed like a hurdle that would be difficult for the space-case.

"She'll be fine," She told herself. "Yui's always been good at getting herself out of things. This time shouldn't be any different!"

* * *

"Hello? Kevin, it's me, Yui. I'm sorry, and I wish you would answer your phone… I said a lot of things I didn't mean, and I didn't take the time to listen to you… Look, can you call me back, I really want to apologize to you in person. Can you meet me tomorrow in front of the school? I'm sorry, again, please forgive me! … Well… I'll see you tomorrow if you find it in your heart to forgive me… Goodnight!"

* * *

Yui looked unsurely at her cellphone. It was getting close to eight, and soon she would have to leave her vigil for Kevin to get to class. Biting her lip, she shoved the phone back into her bag, trying to shake off her unsure feelings. But the sound of two girls running out of the school grounds, frantically chattering, finally drew her out of her trance.

"No way am I staying at school!" One of them practically screamed. "That's just too creepy to ignore!"

"Cops are probably going to hang around all day." The other stated. "It will be too much of a bother!" Curious, Yui perused them, calling out,

"Excuse me… but what's going on?" The two girls looked uneasily from Yui to one another, as if they didn't want to tell her, but Yui persisted, giving them an unwavering, curious gaze.

"There's been a suicide." One of the girls finally told her. "Some foreign kid jumped off the school roof and-" Yui felt her stomach touch her toes as the ground seemed to disappear beneath her. Before the girl could finish, Yui rushed off in the opposite direction and onto school grounds. She could see a crowd gathered at the side of the school, cops trying to shoo the curios and frightened students away to no avail. Yui stood her ground for a second, too afraid to go forward and look, but too determined to back away. Dizzily, she took a step forward, clutching her chest as she slowly moved toward the crowd.

"Everyone, please, go back inside the school in an orderly fashion!" One of the cops commanded, but most of the students treated it as a suggestion and remained gathered around, Yui included. Instead, she continued onward, shoving past people, not even bothering to waste her frantic breaths on an "excuse me". She wanted desperately to see what would normally be a scene too gruesome to draw near to. She wanted to prove her fears were wrong, and that there was no reason for her heart-stopping, stomach-churning feeling of dread.

'There's no way!' She thought, reaching the edge of the crowd. 'It can't be-' Arriving at the edge, her own fears were realized in painful clarity. Before her lay a mangled body, limbs uncomfortably flailed out and criss-crossed amongst a deep-red puddle of blood. Two blue eyes stared blankly from the head weakly cocked to the side, their endless pools seeming to be focused on her. A gasp escaped her, and despite the horror of it all, she could not turn away. There lay Kevin, dead in the place she had hopped to mend the tear in their relationship. Hands over her mouth, all she could do was stare straight at him, looking into his eyes.

"Everyone, please! Go back inside the school!" The cop repeated loudly. Yui leapt, yelping, as she silently obeyed, all the while keeping her eyes focused on the body of the one she held so dear as she sank back into the crowd and out the other side. She didn't scream, nor cry. There was a feeling of absolute nausea gathering in her stomach, but mostly she felt dead, just like how Kevin now was. She continued backing up, her legs moving on their own, until she ran into someone. Jumping, she finally took her eyes off the mass of people to see Mio, looking down at her in worry.

"Yui! Yui, what's wrong?" Moments after she had torn her eyes away from Kevin's final resting place, her eyes finally released tears as she fell to her knees. Gripping Mio's skirt, a wail passed through her lips- A loud, suffering cry that echoed through the school grounds and attracted the attention of everyone near except for the one person she needed comfort from the most, and he was already gone.

* * *

Inside the light music room, no one was in the mood to talk. It had been three days since the incident, and Yui had been absent every single one of them. The four members that had bothered to show up looked down at their teacups, not being in any mood to have their usual teatime.

"Maybe we should cancel having the live," Mugi suggested, looking to Yui's unoccupied seat. Out of habit though, she had set a cup of tea out for her. "It won't be the same without Yui leading."

"For once, I think I agree," Ritsu sighed, head rested on the table. "I don't think anyone is in the mood to play."

"Poor sempai," Azusa added quietly, looking sadly into her still-full teacup.

"Yeah," everyone added in unison. Sitting in silence, it seemed that was the only thing they could do: pity Yui. There wasn't much they could do about it; the usual pep talk wasn't going to mend the loss of a life that meant everything to her. All they could do was talk about how sorry they were, and how they hoped she would pull through.

"Well, we should tell the student council that we won't be giving a performance," Mio sighed, pushing back her seat just as the sound of the club room doors resonated through the room.

"Don't!" Everyone seemed to leap up in unison. Looking to the door, there was Yui, guitar strapped over her shoulder and a ghost of a smile on her face.

"Y-Yui!" Mio exclaimed, being the first of the four to reach her and embrace her in a hug. She was soon followed by the other three, who brought Yui into a warm, group hug.

"We missed you!" Ritsu cried, to which Yui weakly laughed.

"Please, don't cancel the show." She told them seriously, looking down to the floor, still forcing a smile. "How will we get big… if we quit because of me?" The soft sound of tears hitting the wood floor broke the short silence.

"Sempai… will you be alright?" Azusa asked looking and feeling extremely concerned. Yui's shoulders lightly shook as she wiped the tears from her eyes, looking back up to look at her friends with a gaze- even with tears brimming in her eyes- full of determination.

"I'll be fine," Yui told them, a real smile finally revealing itself. "As long as I have you guys, I'll be able to get through this!"

* * *

The day of the performance finally came, not without two days of difficult preparation of course, ranging from the usual onslaught of outfits that Sawako made that Mio refused to wear to consoling Yui who was slowly getting better day by day. The breakdowns had decreased in number, and her usual, happy-spacey exterior had once again begun to resurface.

"Where is that Mio!?" Ritsu complained, standing backstage with the others, angrily tapping her foot and looking down at her watch.

"She's probably too embarrassed to come out," Mugi laughed. After all, Sawako had managed to dress them all up the way she wanted, which was like a bunch of magical girls, frill, sparkles and all. They just needed a cute mascot, and they would be set for fighting evil.

"Well, wherever she is, I'm close to dragging her out of it by her hair," Ritsu groaned. "Want to help, Yui? Considering the ratio of the shortness of her skirt to Mio's freak outs, I'm going to need some help." There was no answer. Yui stood there, statuesque, looking in the direction of the stage. "Yui?"

"Let's give it our all today." She finally spoke up. "I know I am. I won't be playing for the crowd, or to attract new members to the club this year… I'll be playing for him." The three other girls looked at one another, lightly smiling.

"Don't worry!" Ritsu grinned, resting her elbow on Yui's shoulder. "Wherever he is, we'll play it so he can hear!"

"Thanks," Yui smiled, turning to the rest of them. "Thanks, you guys." Just then the room was enveloped in darkness. From behind the curtain they could hear surprised screams from the crowed.

"It must be a black-out." Azusa said, stating the obvious.

"Oh, man, Mio's probably freaking out by now." Ritsu groaned, reaching out in front of her to find something familiar to lead her further backstage. "I'll go find a flashlight, can you guys try finding Mio? Just listen for frantic sobbing, that shouldn't be too hard."

"Okay." The remaining three agreed, each slowly shuffling separate ways to try and locate a most-likely-frightened Mio.

"Mio!" Yui called, hands way out in front of her as she stumbled over every object she came across. "Mio, come out!" A stray wire finally got the best of her and she fell forward into the darkness onto something soft. Feeling around, she realized it was a person, and feeling a little higher, around the chest, she discovered it was the person she was looking for.

"There you are, Mio!" She exclaimed, but there was no response. "Man, you must be scared speechless, and you're covered in sweat." Yui laughed. "Guys, I found Mio! She's too scared to even speak!"

"Don't worry, you scaredy-cat, I have a flash light." Ritsu joked. Yui could hear the footsteps of the other three as they slowly approached where her voice had echoed. "Big-sister Ritsu is here to save the day!"

But when Ritsu finally arrived and shined the light on the two of them, what they found wasn't Mio cowering in fear, and it wasn't sweat she was covered in. Yui found her face to be closest to a gaping wound slashed across her neck. What she thought to be sweat was blood that was covering most of her body, dying her once light blue outfit a deep crimson. Her eyes were turned upward and her mouth was hanging loosely open, trails of blood exiting her lips. Yui was the first to scream as she leaped backward into Ritsu. In horror, Ritsu dropped the flashlight to cover her mouth as she screamed as well. Where the flashlight fell cast a perfect spotlight upon the now-lifeless Mio.

"Oh my god!" Mugi gasped, covering her eyes and turning away, a choked sob escaping her as she shook in fear. Azusa remained silent for a second, frozen in terror as she looked upon the body. Above her, written in her own blood, were words.

"It's all your fault".

A scream finally escaped Azusa as she frantically ran onstage. It was totally dark, but along with it there was an eerie silence. Aside from their screams, they couldn't hear anyone else, not even the slightest chatter. Where was everyone?

"Help!" Azusa shrieked. "HELP!" All that echoed back was her own voice and the panicked sobs of her friends behind her.

"Mio!" Yui gasped, looking at her hands that were covered in Mio's blood. Shaking, she desperately tried whipping it off, only spreading the crimson stain along the sleeves of her costume. She weakly squeaked in frustration, her movements becoming more panicked. Mugi could only stare at it all, eyes peaking out between the cracks in her fingers, afraid that, if she looked away, she and everyone else would meet the same fate.

"HELP!" Azusa repeated once more, finally stumbling offstage and running ungracefully to the auditorium doors. She only knew she had reached them when she ran headlong into them, but even so she felt relief. But it was all for not when she tried opening the doors. The doors wouldn't budge, and only shook and caused a low rumble to resonate around the room that escalated her fear. "NO! NO, NO, NO!" She screamed, each time giving the door an angry pull and push.

"A-Azusa?" Ritsu spoke up, turning so Azusa could hear her clearly, but keeping her eyes on Mio. It was a gruesome site, and she wanted nothing more than to look away, but like the other two, it seemed the death of their friend had cast a fiendish hypnotism on them all, and none of them could pry their eyes away.

"The doors are locked!" Azusa cried, jerking the doors one more time, but to no avail.

"Why would they lock the doors?" Mugi muttered. Their shock about the door soon became insignificant, though, when the light from the flashlight flickered, leaving them in darkness for a short second. Yui screamed, lunging for the flashlight and picking it off the floor.

"Don't burn out!" She pleaded, shaking the only light source they had in a desperate attempt to bring back the now dimming light.

"Yui, stop shaking it!" Ritsu yelled, grabbing her shoulder and trying to force her around the snatch the flashlight away from her. But in fright, Yui dropped it and, from the impact, the cap keeping the batteries in place pooped off, and the sound of batteries scattering about the ground accompanied the darkness that washed over them. A scream consumed the airwaves, but no one could tell who it had been. It was hard to match up voices to people with the combination of darkness and terror.

"HELP! SOMEONE!" Azusa's voice echoed from the back of the theater as she started pounding on the door. Curling up into a ball, Yui wept, feeling the blood that soaked her clothes stain her face. Mugi was silent, but it was to be assumed she was probably suffering silently.

"Everyone!" Ritsu finally shouted, silencing everything: Azusa's wails, Yui's sobs, and Mugi's muted panic. "We need to stop freaking out!"

"But…but Mio-"

"I KNOW!" Ritsu screamed. She didn't even know who had said it, but she didn't want to be reminded. Doing so would only hinder being able to think about an escape. "But we need to start thinking about how to get out of here, and we won't be able to that when we're all in a panic, so we need to-" Her plans were choked off by an awful-sounding, struggling cough from her lips, and it was only worse that her exposition didn't continue after it.

"R...Ritsu?" Yui's question was met with a sickening thud, as the sound of a body limply falling to the ground beside her caused her to jump. "Ritsu? This… this isn't the time to be joking with us-" It soon became clear that it wasn't a joke at all, as something slowly oozed up against Yui's leg. Restraining a scream, she reached slowly over to her, tracing her fingers along Ritsu's back until her fingers came into contact with an object that jutted outwards, and seemed very out of place. It only became clear what it was after she traced her fingers around it, coming in contact with a sharp edge that shallowly sliced her finger. She quickly pulled back, gasping as she did.

"R…Ritsu…"

"What? Yui, what happened?" Asked who she assumed to be Mugi.

"Ritsu is… Ritsu is…" She felt tears build up and slowly stream from her eyes. She reached out, touching the object again, which she had confirmed was, indeed, a knife. She couldn't tell where the blade was buried, but a small glimmer of hope remained.

"Mugi!" She called, "Ritsu's hurt, but we may still have time if you can find an exit! Can you try looking for one while I stay with her?" She could tell by the silence that followed that Mugi was very unsure and unwilling to go out into the darkness on her own. "Please, Mugi!"

"A-Alright!" Mugi finally replied. She stood where she was for a moment, shifting from one foot to another, trying to determine where there would be something to grab onto. Being surrounded by darkness wasn't exactly helping her in her judgment. Finally, taking a deep breath, she took a wide step forward, swinging her arms around in desperate search to find anything that would give her a sign as to where she was headed. Her hands found nothing, so she hesitantly took a second step. Again, nothing. She squeaked in fright and frustration as she swung her arms around her where she stood once more. But instead, something touched her- then shoved her, throwing her completely off balance and spiraling into the darkness. She cried out as she flew to the ground, twisting in the air from having been pivoting before having been pushed. Expecting to have her back to hit the wooden boards of the stage, it was a painful surprise to feel her back hit sharp cement edges, and then her head shortly after: Stairs. A choked cry exited her lips as her ears painfully began to ring.

"MUGI!" Yui shouted, still beside Ritsu. Her voice sounded distant to Mugi, who lay half conscious on the declining steps. She could hear her call echo in her head, and slowly fade away. She tried to call back, but before a syllable could be uttered, her head rang and a splitting headache consumed her skull. So in response, she only groaned. As she slowly came around, she heard footsteps.

"Yui…?" She mumbled. But a sudden yank to her hair confirmed it wasn't her friend come to rescue her. Emitting a painful gasp, she was flung down the remainder of stairs by her hair. Hitting the ground below, she fell uncomfortably onto her side. She lay there for a moment, she screaming pain in her brain not allowing her to do anything but lie on the ground defenselessly. She winced and whined as she felt a finger slowly trace her lips.

'Help me!' she thought. 'Please! Yui! Help me!' But all she could do was mumble; otherwise the pain would grow worse.

"You needn't worry, little lamb." A cruel voice whispered with a hiss. "You and all your friends will be together soon…" the voice paused, and just as Mugi's hope was raised by the mysterious stranger he added, "In death." She had only a short time to gasp before a sickly crushing and splattering sound reached her ears, followed instantly by the most intense pain she had ever felt. So intense, in fact, she threw aside the fact it would hurt her head and screamed a blood-curdling scream.

Yui heard both, and in her panic, left Ritsu's side. But where was Mugi? Twisting and turning she looked around her, only able to see darkness.

"MUGI!" She screamed as she violently looked from side to side, almost enough to give herself whiplash.

"YUI!" Mugi answered, her voice cracking. "HELP ME! OH MY GOD, HELP M-" Her cries of help were silenced by a second sickly crack and splatter, but this time, it wasn't followed by a scream.

"Mugi?" Yui whimpered, but no one answered her that time, just the horrific sound of footsteps drawing closer. "M-Mugi?" The sound of something metal dragging behind someone also rang through the air like a bell.

"Oh, so that was Mugi that I killed just now?" Someone else entirely answered back. Yui jumped. Whoever it was, they were closer than she thought. "No matter, at least now I know for sure who's standing before me, and she's the one I'm looking for."

"Azusa!" Yui screamed, calling her friend to help her. Turning around, she began to flee, regardless of where she was and what was in front of her. But then she felt her body being forced sideways as a cracking noise emitted from her legs. Crying in pain she flew to the side, falling onto the floor and rolling until she hit a wall. She couldn't run, she couldn't see, and she couldn't think past crying. Her own pain, and the pain of knowing for a fact she had lost two of her friends for sure was starting to drive her mad.

"Don't hate me," The same, cruel voice told her as she heard someone kneel beside her. Whoever he was, he sounded almost as if he were overjoyed. "I'm only granting Kevin's last wish."

"K…Kevin!?" Yui exclaimed.

"He told me this," She felt someone's breath caress her skin as whoever was talking drew close to her ear. "...'If I cannot have Yui in life, I want to have her in death'. And now I'm delivering what he wants to him- it's the least I can do for a friend." He pulled away, laughing.

"Who…are you?" Yui asked, quaking in fear.

"My name is Tono Shun," the voice responded. Yui felt her heart stop as the cold mettle end of a gun was pressed against her forehead. "And Kevin was my best friend."

"I…" Yui sobbed, weakly reaching her hands towards the gun. "I'm sorry… I never meant for this to happen." She found the barrel and followed it up to the space where the trigger lay. Slowly she rested her fingers on top of Shun's. "But, if it means that Kevin is waiting for me… that my friends are all waiting for me in death…" She took a deep, shaky breath, smiling despite it all. "I'd rather not keep them waiting any longer." She closed her eyes and, with all her might, pressed down in Shuns finger. A gunshot rang though the air, leaving the room in total silence after it's echoes faded.

"I hope you two will be happy together beyond the veil," Shun whispered, standing to his feet, only to be knocked down again by the fifth band member he had forgotten about. The one who had silently listened to every single painful sound, and the one who refused to let his sins to be unpaid for. Shun grunted, falling to the floor.

"Son of a bitch!" He yelled, trying to get back to his feet when he felt something warm start to flow down his back. Only then did he realize the sharp pain radiating from there as well.

"You will suffer as my friends had suffered!" Azusa screamed, the blade that was once buried in Ritsu's flesh clenched in her hand. "THIS IS FOR MIO!" She angrily thrust down her arm, digging the blade all the way to the hilt into his back. She heard him emit a gurgling moan as he fell to the floor, but her thirst for revenge had yet to be quenched. She quickly drew the knife back out, only to thrust it back in "THIS IS FOR RITSU!" A second painful grunt, weaker than the first, escaped her victim. She repeated the same steps, drawing out the blade and landing her mark a bit higher. "THIS IS FOR MUGI!" Yanking the blade out again, she grasped it in both hands, raising it high above her head. "And this…" She growled, plunging the knife down with all her might. "THIS IS FOR YUI!"

* * *

"Maybe they're in here! The doors are locked!" Sawako called to the other teachers. Unlocking the doors to the auditorium, Sawako threw them open. Something had seemed very, very wrong when none of the light-music club members showed up for practice.

"Yui!? Mio!? Ritsu?! Mugi?! Azusa!?" She called into the darkness. She was silent for a moment, about to turn around and leave until she heard a voice: A strained grunt, one after another.

"Girls, are you in here?!" She called, only to get the same noise back. Flipping the light-switch on, she baited the room in light to find Azusa on center stage, stabbing something again and again with a bloody knife. Each time she retracted, a sticky trail of blood followed the blade out, and each time she thrust the knife down a soft sound came from whatever she was stabbing, like very-tenderized meat being cut.

"Azusa, what are you doing?!" She cried, running up to the stage. "I said what are you-" She stopped and gasped when the entire scene came into view. There was Mugi and the bottom of one of the flights of stairs to the stage, legs and face smashed and bloody. Mio and Ritsu's bodies were the next two she saw, Ritsu lying on her side, a trail of dried blood seeming to have exited the side of her chest where her heart was, and Mio leaned up against the wall, neck slashed and clothes dyed red. And a little further back was Yui, a wide hole in her skull. Sawako stood there petrified, slowly turning to Azusa. She was stabbing to body of a person, but with all the puncture wounds, it was impossible to tell who it even was.

"What…what happened!?" She cried, but Azusa didn't answer. She just went right on stabbing the body of the boy who had single-handedly taken everything from her, even her sanity.


	3. III

Yui looked down sadly at the paper that she had placed on her legs and away from the rest of the club's view. It was only so early in the year, but she already was falling behind. The big red "25" marked on her paper shouted the fact to her loudly. She didn't want to bother her friends with it though- she'd rather them concentrate on club matters (even if it was what sweets Mugi should bring the next day) rather than her grades that were sinking faster than a cement block. Just as she finally found herself becoming fed up with looking at the dreaded number and had decided to shove it into her book bag, a hand snatched it from her.

"So, this is what you were looking at!" Ritsu laughed, holding the test paper just out of sitting Yui's reach. "I was starting to think it was actually something really bad, like someone had committed suicide!"

"Ritsu, failing grades really_ are_bad, especially since we're all taking entrance exams this year," Corrected Shun, who was craning his neck to see the paper. Shun was Ritsu's boyfriend from a neighboring school that she always dragged to club meetings, as if she wanted to show him off and let everyone know she was the only member of the band who had a boy. Although, in the beginning, everyone figured he was just Ritsu's meal ticket and she was using him to buy things for her, and before that they even refused to believe he was real. But eventually, he'd slowly become a permanent accessory to their meetings and had become infamous for stealing everyone else's sweets when unattended.

"Please, could you give that back!?" Yui begged, reaching for the paper and not even giving getting out of her seat much thought.

"Shun's right," Mio agreed, who was tuning her bass. "If your grades get bad enough, you won't be allowed to attend club meetings."

Yui's arms finally flopped down to her sides as she hunched over in defeat.

"I've honestly been studying, though!" She whined. "But whenever I take tests my mind goes blank, and I can never study everything they give us." She drew her legs up onto the chair, hiding her face just in case she started crying. "I haven't even played Gita for a week…" The room grew silent, even Ritsu, who slowly lowered her arms and placed the failing grade carefully by Yui's side and untouched cake.

"Hey!" Azusa piped up in hopes to brighten the atmosphere. "Maybe you could get a tutor!"

"A what?" Yui asked, raising her head a little.

"That's a wonderful idea." Mugi agreed, smacking Shun's hand with a smile as he made a move to take a forkful of Yui's snack. "I have plenty of references for good tutors!"

"I'm sure all of us combined wouldn't be able to afford the tutors your parents can for you," Ritsu joked, laughing at Shun's misfortune of being caught in the act.

"She's only trying to help, Ritsu," Mio scolded.

"Thanks…" Yui sighed, lowering her head back behind the security of her drawn up legs. "But with the cuts to my allowance because of my grades, I can't afford much to anything, tutors included." The air about the club members grew heavy again as the idea was shot down.

"I have an idea!" Shun finally announced, raising his hand.

"Bringing extra snacks to the meetings again?" Mugi asked, a surprising amount of venom in her question with a smile still on her face. "It won't help as much as you think and I've already told you no."

"It's not that, I have an actual idea this time!" He groaned, looking over to Yui. "I've recently been talking to this transfer student from the states. He seems pretty well rounded when it comes to school and is going to a pretty prestigious university near by." Yui picked her head back up again, a small twinkle of hope in her eyes. "I may be able to talk him into giving you a lesson or two."

"You would do that?" Yui questioned excitedly, straightening up.

"Sure. He's always talking about how bored he is, so he could fill his time with filling that empty skull of yours-ow!" Shun exclaimed as Ritsu gave him a quick hit on his head, but Yui didn't seem to catch the insult. She was back to her old self, smiling as if hardly anything was wrong.

"Thank you!" She happily cried, leaping over the table to give Shun a hug.

"Wait, Yui, stop!" Shun exclaimed, but by that time, it was too late. He wasn't concerned about the hug as much as he was the cake that was in Yui's line of fire. And much to his dismay the perfectly good confection was knocked off the table onto the ground. "The…cake…"

"That's what you get, snack thief." Mio giggled, along with the rest of the members as they watched a very happy Yui hug him as he mourned the loss of the cake.

* * *

"Excuse me," A voice called out. Yui, who had been waiting outside the library, quickly spun around to meet the blue eyes of her tutor. He was tall and easily towered over a good majority of the people in the hallway. "Are you Hirasawa Yui by any chance?" Yui stared at him blankly, but nodded her head slowly. He had an accent, like she would expect most people who didn't learn Japanese as their first language would have, so it took her a little longer to process what he had said.

"Thank god!" He sighed, leaning over so his hands touched his knees. "All Shun told me was that I should look for the girl with brown hair! I'm so embarrassed, I probably approached 20 other girls!" Sighing again, he stood up straight, gaining his composure as he offered her his hand to shake. "I'm Kevin, your tutor."

Yui was silent for a moment, still giving him her patent blank stare she gave most things she was new to.

"You're definitely an American," She finally told him, not even bothering to shake his outstretched hand. Kevin stared back at her for a moment before doubling over in laughter as Yui looked on, not exactly getting what was so funny, but giving a quick chuckle to humor him.

"Shun did warn me I would probably be welcomed in an odd way." Kevin laughed, wiping a stray tear from his eye. "Let's hurry into the library, I'm sure a bunch of brown haired girls have reported to their teachers about some strange American man wandering the halls." Leading the way into the library, Yui stood stationary for a moment.

"I don't get it," She muttered to herself as she finally turned to follow him in.

* * *

A few hours had past since the tutoring had started. It was starting to get darker as the library began to become enveloped in shadow. Yui eventually came to grips with Kevin's accent and the confused looks she gave him had long since left, along with most of her confusion in math and history. They had gotten off track quiet a bit despite it- mostly Yui going on and on about the light music club and Shun mooching off of them now for free cake.

"I say we call it a day before we get locked in here, huh?" Kevin chuckled, gathering up his books and papers he had brought.

"Yeah, I guess." Yui yawned, gathering her materials as well. "You're pretty good at History." She added. "Is that what you're planning on studying here?"

"History is pretty interesting to me, but sadly what I'm interested in isn't offered as a course at my university." Kevin admitted, standing up. Yui looked at him for a moment, as if studying him.

"You're not one of those guys who are into the "study of moe" are you?" She asked him. Kevin answered with another booming laugh, shaking his head.

"Don't worry, I'm not like that, but you would look at me weird if I told you." He explained. "I should know, you should have seen Shun's reaction when I told him."

"I promise I won't!" Yui promised as the two of them headed for the door.

"Maybe next time," He assured her, ruffling her hair. "I don't want you to think I'm strange only after having just met me."

"Fine." Yui sighed in defeat, pulling away and trying to fix her hair.

"Call me to tell me how you do on your next test, okay?" Kevin told her as they headed to the exit down the hallway baited in an orange –almost red- glow from the setting sun. "I'll be able to prepare my lesson if I know what you're still struggling in."

"Sure." Yui smiled. At that moment any worry of her failing had washed away in the short amount of time. Being around Kevin made her feel not only safe about her grades, but everything else as well. She anticipated the next session of tutoring, and couldn't help but feel her heart sink as they parted ways.

'Next time I meet, I'll make him proud of me,' she resolved to herself as she ran for home.

* * *

"Kevin-sensei! Kevin-sensei!" Were the first things to ring through the speaker of his phone after Kevin answered. He didn't even have to ask, though, he knew right away it was Yui, but he wished she wouldn't have been so loud. He gave a quick look around the area of the university making sure no one hard heard and was looking at him strangely.

"Hey, Yui, what's up?" He asked, hoping she wouldn't scream again.

"A lot of stuff!" She told him happily. "I got a 95 on my history test! A 95!"

"That's great!" Kevin congratulated, holding the phone away from his ear slightly, a smile suddenly creeping across his face. "Excellent, then I have a perfect idea about what our next lesson can be on."

"Thank you again!" Yui squealed, the sound of her cell phone charms jingling faintly echoed through the speaker as she jumped up and down. "I'll never be able to repay you for your kindness!"

"You don't need to worry, Yui," Kevin told her, the smile he wore becoming a near smirk. "You'll be able to repay me very, _very_ soon."

* * *

Shun waited outside the record store sleepily, giving another look at the time on his cell phone. Ritsu, who usually could nag and nag at him for being mere minutes late to their random engagements, was extremely late. At first, Shun was going to use her being late as means to pay her back for the complaining she did whenever he showed up late for dates, but now it was getting sad, annoying and altogether worrisome. Ritsu was always punctual for things she found important, and even though he told himself again and again she was only human, being a whole two hours late for a simple trip to sample the local fast food restaurant's new special wasn't exactly a simple fault. Something was up.

As soon as he was about to withdraw his phone from his pocket yet again, it suddenly vibrated, announcing a text message had been sent to him.

"That better be her." He muttered, but in a more worried tone than an annoyed one. But instead, a text from Kevin appeared on his screen as he flipped it open.

"I've finally found a class that suits my interests!" It read, with a happy emoticon. He wanted to cheer on his friend for finding a class that interested him, but he was too enveloped in Ritsu's mysterious disappearance…

Before he closed the phone he quickly brought it back up to eye level, reading the message over again frantically. Feeling like his insides hit his toes the message gave him a terrible feeling and it made him shiver. Kevin's "interests" and Ritsu's lateness quickly connected themselves in a way that made him feel queasy.

"There's no way…" He told himself, trying to ignore the new-found feeling in his gut: that of terror. "Kevin wouldn't…" He looked at the text again, then to his left and right for Ritsu, and back to the text again. There was no shaking the scene his mind in panic had concocted, and there was now no way he could simply shrug it off. Closing his phone he quickly started running, pushing his way through crowds of people. If what he thought was true, he was going to have to get something first.

* * *

Kevin heard footsteps frantically echo behind him in the dark hallways of the high school. Without even having to turn around he knew exactly who it was.

"KEVIN!" Shun shouted, stopping a few feet away from him. It didn't take him very long to realize what was limply hanging in the grip of one of his hands. There was Ritsu, unconscious, being held up slightly by her hair. "You bastard! What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Oh, Shun, I'm sorry." Kevin apologized, completely ignoring his angry question. "The class is all full, you'll have to apply for another course."

"Stop making jokes, you sick clown!" Shun growled, reaching into his pocket and producing a shotgun. "Drop Ritsu! I don't want to do this, but if you don't let her go, I'll be forced to!"

"Oh, Shun, always thinking of your friends." Kevin chuckled, shaking his head as he carelessly allowed Ritsu to fall face first against the wooden floor. "And if you're that eager to take the course, I guess I could simply give you a demo of what the light music club will be learning." Turning all the way around he revealed a bat in his other hand that made Shun do nothing but snort.

"If you think you could even touch me with that, you're crazy." Shun chuckled, gun still pointed at Kevin.

"I'll be doing more than touching you with it, that wouldn't be a good enough demonstration." Kevin explained with a sick smile. Shun nearly lost his footing at the speed Kevin came at him with, but his finger on the trigger was quicker, and his charge forward was brought to a crashing halt as the shot echoed through the hall. Kevin's body flew backward, the bat landing a short distance away from him. Hands shaking, Shun slowly lowered the firearm, still unable to believe what he had just done. He didn't know whether to relax or to let lose the vomit that was crawling up his throat. He never imagined killing someone would hurt himself so much.

A few moments past before he lowered the gun, pointing it to the ground instead of Kevin's motionless body. There were more important matters at hand, one being seeing if Ritsu was okay and finding the other girls that Kevin had mentioned. But as he walked over to where Ritsu lay, something forced him to stop mid-step. In horror he looked down to see Kevin, still face-down in the floor, but arm outstretched and tightly gripping his ankle.

"Ah, rebellious students," He heard him mutter. Shun stared down at him in disbelief as Kevin lifted his head, revealing a shallow head wound, nothing more. "Their aims in life are so off the mark from our curriculum." Shun opened his mouth, but there was nothing for him to say. Just shocked squeaks as he tried to pull away. "Students like you… they need a more _special_touch." With another act of lightning speed he reached out and grabbed the bat that he had dropped, swinging it with all his might against Shun's leg. A sickening crack resounded as a dry cry clawed it's way up Shun's throat. He fell to the floor, grabbing his now-mangled leg as Kevin stood, towering above him, bending down to grab the gun Shun had forgotten about in his pain.

"I'll be confiscating this." Kevin sneered, standing back up and turning Shun's own weapon on him. "You'll get this back after class."

* * *

"Ooh…" Yui moaned, slowly coming to, unable to move neither of her arms or legs. "My head…" Looking up, at first, her vision was still blurry and dark shapes swirled and moved in a manner that made her motion sick. That is until a frantic whisper brought her all the way around.

"Yui!" Shaking her head lightly she slowly recognized the faces of her friends, save for Azusa, each one more frightened than the last. They were all tied to chairs, illuminated by the moon through the light music club windows.

"W...What happened?" Yui asked, voice slurred.

"No talking during class, ladies!" A familiar voice commanded. Yui slowly turned to see Kevin, looking down at all of them with a sick grin.

"K-Kevin!" She exclaimed, feeling suddenly more awake then ever.

"I said no talking." Kevin told her again, the feeling of a barrel of a gun caress underneath her chin quickly closing Yui's mouth and choking off any sort of questions she had, which were many. Kevin looked at the gun as he removed it from her flesh. "Oh, this, just something I pulled off a student. Don't worry, I don't use toys like this during class.

"And, Yui, I know I promised to tell you what I was interested in the next we met, so I won't let your starving little ears hunger any longer." He chuckled, like he was about to give a punch line to a great joke. "My interests lie in the all kinds of different torture methods that there are. Sadly, there are only four of you and one late little lamb, so I won't be able to cover that much with you here today. But…" He walked to the side of the room, setting down the gun on the table amongst several other objects. "Even with limited material I intend to make today's lesson as stimulating as I can."

Walking back into the center of the tied up girls, unarmed and cheery he looked at them with almost too kind eyes.

"Well, before we begin, we'll have to pick the class president. Are there any takers?" Kevin looked at each of them, and each one averted their gaze. His eyes finally fell on Mugi, who was close to tears. "You. You are absolutely perfect." He told her, approaching her and running his fingers through her hair and down to her chin that he cupped as he forced her head up to face him. "The very image of the sort of model student I look for. You make sure to pay extra close attention, as the president of any class must do…" Leaning forward he whispered into her ear, causing her whole body to quiver. "Now, how about you point out the first student I should give extra special attention to. I know you know these students well, you should be able to point out the ones who are sure to struggle without having a hands on demonstration." Mugi whimpered, throwing her gaze to the side a moment, but Kevin took it as a point as he looked in the direction she had: to Mio.

"Ah, thank you, president." Kevin smiled, stepping back and over to the table. "Now, class, there are certain types of tortures that you'll need to know about. Firstly being…" He stopped to grunt as he picked up a cement block. "…The sorts used in interrogations." He walked over to Mio, who silently screamed as he slipped the block between her legs and left to retrieve another item from the table, which was a sledgehammer this time. "These sorts of practices were made to keep the person alive, but put them in a considerable amount of pain to the point where they would say anything at all to make it stop." Walking over to Mio again he lifted the hammer into the air, as if he were readying a golf swing. Before the tool made contact Mio had already began to scream. The sickening crack and squish only promoted the volume of her cries.

"AAAAAAAAH!" She shrieked, shaking back and fourth madly as her broken leg flailed against the cement block, leaving dark bloodstains on his white surface. Saliva flew wildly from her lips as she loudly, anxiously cried. "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!"

"Now, class, as you can see, I'm sure if I… I were to tell her that…" Kevin's smile faltered a bit as Mio continued to interrupt with her painful cries. Taking a long intake of breath he twisted around to Mio, who quickly stopped. Her body shook uncontrollably, from pain and from fear.

"Now, what did I say…" Kevin paused lifting his hammer into the air. "…About talking in class!?" Mio's scream only lasted half a second before it was interrupted by a sick-making splatter. Everyone looked away, screaming and crying themselves because, even if they hadn't seen it, they all knew what had happened. But one late, little lamb saw it all.

"Ah…AH!" Everyone looked to the door to see Azusa, hands tightly clamped over her mouth as she coughed madly. A sick colored liquid poured through her fingers as she started to lose balance on her own two feet. There had been a text message about an emergency meeting for the club, but she had to turn it down. But when Shun sent her a text about how something terrible may have happened and to meet him at school, she'd ran all the way there. A little too fast, it seemed, since she had arrived just in time to watch Mio's head explode under the force of the sledgehammer.

"My, my, my, aren't we quite late?" Kevin chuckled, tossing the blood-covered hammer to the ground. "Students who come in during the middle of a lesson deserve punishment. I'm sure a detention is in order."

"RUN!" Mugi screamed. "RUN! GET HELP-" Kevin turned to her, giving her cheek a mighty smack, but what had already had been said was enough for Azusa, who even on unsteady legs turned on her heel and ran.

"Excuse me a moment, my dear students," Kevin told all of the remaining girls as he casually followed after her. "I need to head out for a moment, I'll be right back."

Azusa didn't even keep track of where she was headed. She'd forgotten where the exits where, where any sort of escape route was located. All that she could remember now was how to run. And run she did, until she found herself on the school roof, far from any sort of exit. Running to the edge she looked down to the ground. From below the school never looked all too big, but from above the school might as well have been hundreds of stories.

"Going onto the school roof is forbidden, you know?" Azusa felt a shiver run up her spine. It was the tall American man from before- the one who had slaughtered Mio right in front of her. Hearing his footsteps ring our across the quiet night air she cried, facing him, but backing away, matching each one of his steps with a step in the opposite direction.

"Delinquent student's always need to be taught a lesson, but I apply a much more simple method in helping them get back on the right track." Kevin laughed, stopping only a few steps from Azusa, who also stopped just as he had. "All students like you need, really, is a push in the right direction." Before Azusa could react Kevin had stepped several steps in her direction and was far enough away that he could push her backward. And it only occurred to her where she was as the sound of a fan became frighteningly close. He had backed her right up next to the air conditioning system.

Back in the room everyone expected a scream. They gave each other frightened looks, crying and squealing whenever their eyes met the annihilated Mio. Suddenly a thunk and the labored sound of some machinery being forced to slow down echoed from the ceiling before it started right back up again.

"W…What was that?" Ritsu asked, just in time to be answered by a crimson fog that drifted from the air vents. Everyone watched in horror as the mist settled downward onto them. Ritsu looked down at her hands, spotted with red speckles that smeared as she rubbed her fingers around her palms. It was warm, wet and stinky and just as all three of them came to the same conclusion the pungent stench of it finally reached them as well: Blood.

"Well, I was going to tell you all, but it seems my smart little pupils have already figured it out." Kevin grinned as he walked in just in time to hear the girls scream, trying to break free of the ropes tying them to their chairs and try to find a way to wipe Azusa's blood off of themselves. "Your little friend Azusa won't be joining us, unfortunately, she had to drop out. Poor little thing, she was devastated to bits that she couldn't join her friends."

"Let us go!" Ritsu cried, tears streaming down her face, clearing away the speckles of blood on their way down. "You've made your point, now please! Let us go!" Kevin did nothing but laugh, walking over to the table again to retrieve yet another item, this time being an already-plugged-in nail gun. Immediately the room fell silent.

"Oh, this is what I like to see," Kevin smiled, walking into the center again, looking at each of the girls, faces and body's covered in red dust. "A class full of students, quiet, attentive and ready to learn. But even so, this is a hands-on course. Someone needs to speak up if we want to continue." He turned to Ritsu, who immediately returned to trying to free herself seeing as his gaze didn't waver or travel to the person beside her.

"Oh, yes, you'll be perfect for this demonstration." He chuckled, walking over to her.

"Please! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Ritsu cried desperately, heavily sobbing as drool she'd let dribble from her mouth in her panic traveled down her chin.

"Shhhhh," Kevin whispered, cupping her chin and roughly forcing her face up ward. "Not while teacher is talking." Ritsu only broke out into more sobbing and begging, but this time Kevin ignored it and faced the other two. "Now, continuing on, another torture that is used to extract information, and my favorite among them all, is driving nails through the person's fingers. It's very very painful but..." He turned to Ritsu, tightly pinning her left hand against the arm rest of the chair, "It's meant so the person remains very much alive." Taking the nail gun he pressed it gently against her middle finger.

"Usually this is done using a hammer, but I'd rather have each of my lessons use a different tool from the last." And with that said he pulled the trigger, a single nail shooting out and smashing right through Ritsu's finger, who let out a blood curdling shriek as she began to thrash madly in her chair.

"See?" He asked the other two with glee in his voice. "Very painful. I could ask her anything right now and she would probably tell me everything and then some." He turned back to Ritsu, rubbing away a bloody tear from her cheek, licking it from his finger before moving the nail gun over to her index finger. "But I want to know so much more." Ritsu cried out again long before he pressed the trigger again and pierced the second finger. Crying, swearing and shrieking she threw herself back and fourth so violently she nearly knocked the chair over.

"STOP!" Mugi begged, along with Yui. "Please, stop it!"

"Hmm, your right, president. You can only do the same lesson so many times before it starts to get boring." Kevin agreed removing the nail gun from Ritsu's hand, who only calmed down a little before the gun was turned to her chest, right over her heart. "And I'll respect Ritsu's wishes and let her go. But I also need you to deliver a message before you go." He leaned in close, breath caressing her ear as he whispered, "Please tell Shun for me… no hard feelings."

All Ritsu could do in the time allowed was take a sharp intake of breath, like she was readying one, final scream. But not even Kevin would allow her that much, and with the final pull of the trigger, the sound of the nail shooting from the gun and hitting the back of the chair announced Ritsu's departure, and all Yui and Mugi could do was turn away.

"That covers most of the tortures for interrogation that I wanted to show you. Now, since we're short on time and girls, I'll have to skip to the finale." Kevin informed them, going once again to the back of the room, coming back one last time with a large bottle of water and a taser.

"There are some forms of torture that simply are made to kill the person who it's being used against, but slowly and in a way that breaks them." He explained, uncapping the water and pouring it slowly over Yui, all the while humming to himself. Even though it was water, she flinched, crying as the clear liquid washed the blood that covered her body away and seeped onto the floor around her.

"This practice specifically allows the person to decide when they finally do, in fact, die." Yui jumped in her seat as Kevin turned the taser to high, the loud cracking of the device ringing through the room. "Unfortunately I won't be able to stick around for the results of this, and it makes my heart heavy to leave such wonderful students so soon. So I'll tell you what I need to now." He slowly dropped to one knee, looking at Yui with kind eyes as he brushed a damp strand of hair from her face. "Congratulations on passing your tests, it makes me very proud. I hope you pass this with flying colors as well." Tears spilled from Yui's eyes as she opened her mouth to speak, but before she could Kevin shoved the handle of the taser between her teeth so it all came out as a surprised mumble.

"All you need to do is drop the taser whenever you're ready." He told her, giving her cheek one final caress as he stood. "Of course, when you do… well, you're a bright student, you'll figure it out." He left her to cry, tightly holding the taser in her mouth in fear.

"All that remains is the president." He cheerfully said, walking beside Mugi and placing his hands on her shoulders. "Your torture is special, little one. You get to receive the most painful torture of all. And that was watching each one of your friends die. It involved no tools, you suffer no injuries, and you come out of all of it alive. But it's the most painful, because no one will be here for you when you walk out of this. All your friends will be beyond the veil and you'll be too scared to take your own life." Kevin suppressed a chuckled as he continued. "But there's also a good side to your special lesson. With all that you've learned, you may now go and teach my lesson to the world."

"No…" Mugi whispered, shaking her head as she cried.

"It's not a title you can step away from." Kevin told her, as he turned around and headed for the door. "It's your duty now, don't let your teacher down." And as he left, Yui, who's tears had dried along with any sort of will to live, after giving each friend one last look she smiled at Mugi, who could only stare back at her in horror.

"Yui! Don't!" But her pleadings were in vain, and the taser slipped from Yui's jaws.

* * *

In the end, the mysterious killer was never caught. After weeks of searching the police gave up. Everyone at school had done the same as well. The light music club had been converted into a storage room, but no one dared stay in it for very long- the fact students had been killed within it's walls kept everyone out.

The one survivor, Kotobuki Tsumugi , was the only one left alive and mere days after being sent from police station to police station to testify and again and again giving each and every one the same cryptic answer, she dropped out of school. Some said she killed herself, others told that she had moved somewhere far away. But only one woman was about to know the truth, both of what had become of her and the story she had left the authorities to puzzle over:

"I will teach his lesson, I remember every word."

* * *

Sawako awoke bound and gagged, her eyes covered by a sheet and her mind fuzzy. Last she remembered she was doing some late-night shopping, then darkness. The air around her smelled stale, and even through she sheet she could tell there was hardly any light where she was.

Suddenly the cloth that covered her mouth was roughly removed, burning the edge of her mouth as it harshly grazed her skin. At first all she could do was cough, lungs filling themselves with dust-filled air.

"Welcome." A voice told her, from where she was still not sure. But it was kind, warm and, for some reason, it sent shivers up her spine.

"Who's there!? Where am I?" She cried, trying to break free of her restraints, but with no success.

"Who I am and where you are aren't very important right now." The voice answered back. "All I'm here to do is to teach you. It's a lesson you, just as I, will not soon forget."


	4. IV

Mugi couldn't help but feel excited as she rode to school, sitting in the back of the local bus. It was her third and final year in high school, After-school Tea Time was slowly building its way to fame and on top of it all she was riding the bus- all by herself! Everything about riding it all on her own seemed to fill her with a sense of happiness, despite how simple of a thing it was. Mugi had already experienced the fantastical and the opulent- those things had become regular to her after so long. But things so simple, like riding a bus, were always too inaccessible from such a lofty place. Lowering herself to something more common had become her new means of fun. And as she shifted back and fourth in her seat she couldn't help but feel something good was going to happen.

The bus' sudden halt almost threw her from her seat, and once she finally got her hair out of her face and straightened up, blushing in embarrassment. Cars she often rode in never lurched forward as much as buses, it seemed, and she hadn't thought to brace herself. Looking around to see if no one was staring, she saw a girl about her age rummaging through a little change purse at the front of the bus.

"I could have sworn I put the right amount in here…" She muttered, turning red from embarrassment under the gaze of the passengers, Mugi included. But Mugi's eyes were drawn to the girl in a whole different way. She was tall- much taller than the other girls from her school for sure- and she had an accent that quickly gave away she was a foreigner. Her brown hair was a bit of a mess and her equally brown eyes were starting to well up with tears. Something about this girl seemed to pull Mugi in, and it was a feeling she had never felt before.

But one thing was for certain; the girl was short on bus fare and was a quick second from being told to leave the bus.

"E...Excuse me!" Mugi spoke up, standing up from her seat. The girl looked up at her with her watery eyes, giving Mugi a hopeful gaze. "Can…Can I be of assistance?"

This feeling…could it be? It had to be!

She'd fallen in love with another girl.

* * *

"Mugi…Mugi…" Yui called to her friend as she poured her tea. "MUGI!" Mugi finally came back to reality to find she had filled Yui's teacup way past the brim, and the tea had overflowed onto the table.

"Oh, no!" Mugi gasped, nearly dropping the teakettle. "I'm sorry, I was spacing out! I'm sorry!" She set down the teakettle and ran to get something to wipe the spill up with as Yui stood up to escape the waterfall of tea streaming from the edge of the table.

"Are you alright, Mugi?" Ritsu asked after Mugi had rushed back with a towel. "You don't seem to be really here with us today. I mean, you didn't even catch Shun taking your cake." She looked over to her glutinous boyfriend who was still enjoying his pilfered pastry.

"What, she obviously wasn't going to eat it!" Shun said in his defense, mouth full of creampuff.

"It's okay, I have been a bit spacey today." Mugi sighed, finishing cleaning the spill. "I guess my mind's been on…other things."

"Heheh, I see right through you, little Mugi." Sawako darkly chuckled. "I know that face well: it's the face of someone who's fallen in love!"

"LOVE!?" Everyone exclaimed.

"No, no, you got it all… That's not… I…" Mugi cried, blushing and hiding her face behind the tea-covered towel.

"Who is it!? Who is it!?" Yui asked excitedly. Mugi groaned- a noise that caused Yui to draw back a bit. Normally, Mugi never seemed at all bothered, even when Yui pestered her, and Mugi herself was quick to change her own expression, trying to seem a lot less bothered than she actually was. If it were any other, random guy she'd gladly tell them. But she wasn't sure how her friends would react if she said she fell in love with another girl. She wanted to think that her friends would accept her, but she couldn't bring herself to even consider telling them.

"It was just someone on the bus, okay?" Mugi muttered, returning to taking cover behind the towel.

"Common guys, she obviously doesn't want to tell us." Mio sighed. "Not all of us are like Ritsu, who practically announced she's gotten a boyfriend over the break."

"Shut up!" Ritsu groaned.

"I'm…I'm sorry!" Mugi muttered, setting the towel down. "But… I just remembered, I promised my parents I would run some errands!"

"Are you sure you're not just running away from us figuring out who your mystery crush is?" Sawako joked.

"Sensei, please…" Mio sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. "You can go, Mugi. I'm sorry about…these people."

"No, no, it's fine." Mugi told her, reassuringly. "I'll tell you all later, okay?"

"You better!" Ritsu shouted, "Or we'll force it out of- Shun! That's my creampuff!"

* * *

"Thank you for waiting!" Mugi gasped as she approached the bus stop. Just as promised, there she was, consumed in reading a book and smiling down at the pages. The brown haired girl from that morning finally noticed Mugi had arrived once she'd called out and looked up from the book she was reading and smiled in a welcoming manner. "I couldn't get out of my club fast enough!"

"No, it's fine, I needed to catch up on my reading, anyway." She laughed, placing her book in her bag. "It's the least I could do for you helping me out this morning. I'm still not 100% clear on the price of bus fare." She chuckled, embarrassed, as Mugi sat beside her.

"It was my pleasure." Mugi told her. "Oh! I never introduced myself!" Mugi felt awkward now, seeing as she had asked the girl to meet her after school without even telling her who she was. She fumbled with her words now, the embarrassment over having asked the girl on -more or less- a date without exchanging names tripping her eloquence up. "I'm Tsumugi, my friends call me Mugi."

"No bother at all, I didn't even notice. I was way too distracted by how relieved I was." The girl shrugged. "I'm Alexis." She held out her hand for Mugi to shake. At first she didn't know what to do before gingerly taking her hand, lightly blushing. Her hands were warm and soft, and she didn't want to let go.

"So, why did you ask me to wait for you, Tsumugi?" Alexis asked as the two of them shook hands. "If it's because you wanted to pay for my bus ride, it's fine, I don't want to trouble you again. My place isn't too far from here…"

"No… well… sort of… I…" Mugi paused, trying to find the words to say while Alexis watched her curiously. "W…want to…I mean, if it's all right with you, would you…"

"Want to go shopping or something together?" Alexis interrupted, taking the words right out of Mugi's mouth. She looked back at her in shock while Alexis simply smiled back.

"YES!" Mugi blurted out before quickly throwing her hands over her mouth. "I mean… if you want to, that is…"

"Heh, you're a funny person, Tsumugi." Alexis giggled, patting Mugi's head as if she were a dog who had done a trick for its' master. Mugi could feel her face grow warm as she did so, and had to restrain herself from leaning into the light pressure of her hand. She couldn't help it, something about this girl made her feel a way she'd never felt before. And as she removed her hand as the bus pulled up at the bus stop, she couldn't help but want to ask her to put it back.

"Common then, time's-a-wasting," Alexis grinned, getting up and offering Mugi her hand.

"R-Right!" Mugi nodded, gently taking her hand and feeling her heart leap as Alexis tightened her grip slightly around her fingers. And as the two of them approached the bus, Mugi couldn't help but feel something would go wrong. But even so, her desire to follow after her like an obedient puppy overcame her usual safety-first nature. This was love, she knew it and she wasn't going to let it go because of a silly feeling.

* * *

The next day Mugi was in a daze. It didn't help that Alexis hadn't shown up for the bus, although it wasn't like she had promised her anything. Looking down at her phone, she stared down at the new set of contact information, wanting desperately to dial the number and call. Biting her lip in frustration she closed the phone instead and stowed it away in her bag.

The night before had left her breathless- even now she felt lightheaded. She hadn't expected anything from the little outing, especially what happened at the end, before the two of them had parted ways. Touching her lips gently with the tips of her fingers, she closed her eyes, trying to relive Alexis' parting gift to her. The gentle and yet forceful feeling of her lips pressed against her's wasn't something she could re-live by thinking about it, and it left her wanting more.

"I shouldn't bother her," Mugi told herself, catching herself reaching for her cell phone again. "If it was that important, I'm sure she would have called." Her trance was broken by almost being catapulted out of her seat again by the bus breaking to a stop at the school bus stop (she still had yet to get used to that!) Taking one last deep breath Mugi stood up and walked out.

But as soon as she did, she couldn't help but feel like something wasn't right. As she walked onto the school grounds, groups of girls who had been chattering suddenly fell silent or huddled closer together to whisper to one another. People were more than happy to step out of her way long before she came anywhere close to them. A feeling of panic rose inside of her as she picked up her pace slightly, feeling absolutely zero relief as she reached the inside of the school. Her indoor shoes had been written all over and slashed, and on the locker itself someone had written "DYKE". She could hear people laughing quietly as they passed her, making out a "did you hear?" and a "that girl…"

Destroyed shoes on her feet, she ran to her classroom, only to find the welcome feeling she usually got had vanished as well. Everyone looked at her with a withering gaze and dropped their gossip to a sharp hush as Mugi walked to her seat. The text books she had left behind were scattered all over the floor, pages ripped out and torn, covered littered with more spiteful graffiti. Her seat was covered in water (Or at least she assumed) and someone had scrawled "DON'T COME TO SCHOOL" on her desk.

"Don't get to close to her," she finally heard someone snicker. "She might try and molest you."

"I heard she made out with another girl yesterday," another voice chimed in.

"What if she tries to do it to one of us!"

"Ewww!" A chorus of voices announced just as the teacher walked into the classroom and told everyone to sit. Mugi had no choice in the matter: she had to sit down too. She could feel her skirt grow damp as the water seeped into the cloth. Behind her, a few voices softly chuckled as she scooped up the tattered remains of her textbooks and hid them in her desk. A lump in her throat grew as she held back tears that were begging to be released.

The rest of the day couldn't have been worse. She was completely ostracized during gym and when she came back someone had left thumbtacks on her chair. Someone had stolen her lunch, and later she found it, her bento box thrown into the trash and it's contents emptied into a toilet. No one spoke to her, but their glances and laughs spoke louder than any words. Someone had seen her and Alexis the other day, and now the entire school seemed to have started a vendetta against her. There was only one chance the day could get any better, her final chance of salvation was behind the light music clubroom doors. If they accepted her- if they smiled and went about their business with her as if nothing was wrong- she'd be able to put up with an entire school year of being the school's outcast. Her friends wouldn't just leave her, she knew them better than that.

"Hello!" She announced as she walked into the clubroom. Everyone was there, sitting on the couch leaning over Azusa who was looking at her cellphone. "What's everyone looking…" Mugi stopped as she saw the picture everyone was gawking at. She felt her heart sink and her legs grow weak. The picture was a clear shot of her and Alexis' kiss from the night before. This was how word had gotten around.

"M…Mugi…" Yui muttered in surprise. Feeling a wave of panic and rage overcome her, Mugi snatched the cellphone out of Azusa's little hands and chucked it against the floor. It immediately broke on contact, the two individual pieces separating from one another as they violently clattered to the floor.

"H-Hey!" Azusa cried in saddened protest, rushing passed Mugi to picked up her now-ruined cellphone.

"Please don't tell me you're going to go along with the schools stupid little game!" Mugi cried. "It's nothing! It's just a picture!"

"But…we never expected you…" Mio told her, averting her gaze and turning it to the ground. Sure, Mio was shy, but now she was sure she was looking away simply for the sake of the fact she didn't want to look at her. "I mean, we never thought…"

"Thought what!?" Mugi screamed. "It's nothing! I'm still me, I didn't become someone different overnight!"

"But-"

"IT WAS JUST A KISS!" Mugi shrieked, angrier than she had ever been. Her friends- her best closest friends were pulling away.

"I…I just remembered, I told Shun I'd meet him after school today." Ritsu stammered after an awkward silence fell over the room. Mugi could feel a stab of rage, since Ritsu had obviously come up with a terrible lie seeing as Shun was right behind her as she quickly left the room.

"Well, it wouldn't be practice if our drummer wasn't here." Azusa quietly said, pocketing her ruined cellphone and not even giving Mugi a second glance. "I mean, it's only natural we call the meeting off today, right guys?"

"Right…" Mio agreed, following after her.

"Yui, you aren't going to abandon me, right!?" Mugi asked with a hurt smile, looking to the last girl in the room. "You know better than to judge me over a stupid picture, right?"

"Mugi… I'm sorry!" Yui gasped as she ran past Mugi, leaving her all alone. At first, she stood still, looking forward statuesque and in shock, the desperate smile still on her face. Everyone had left. None of them had even bothered to have an open mind about the situation. They were just like everyone else. Finally falling to her knees she buried her face in her hands and began to loudly sob, her whole body madly shaking as she cried. She'd finally found someone who meant the world to her, and now everyone else was gone.

* * *

The next day was no different, if not worse. Her indoor shoes were missing entirely this time, replaced with spiteful letters and a dead mouse that caused her to shriek and everyone around her to quietly laugh to themselves. Today, she walked to her class barefoot, the quiet whispers from the other day having grown in volume to where she could hear almost every hateful word against her.

Outside her classroom someone had thrown a desk haphazardly into the hallway. She didn't have to guess, she knew it was hers from the little messages written all over the desktop. Angrily, she picked up her desk and chair, dragging them both into the room.

"Ew, she actually brought them back." Someone cried, as if Mugi were some sort of cockroach.

"Heh, we left a spot open for you, dyke." A girl near the front of the classroom chuckled, pointing to the far corner of the classroom.

"Don't get anywhere near her, you don't want her to try anything." A girl next to her cackled.

Something inside Mugi snapped at that moment. She'd never been prone to violence, but all she wanted to do now was hurt someone- punish them for wrongfully punishing her. The thought almost amused her, so much it no longer was a simple, innocent thought. Angrily, she threw her desk to the side, almost hitting a few girls who were walking in.

"SHUT UP!" Mugi growled, taking her chair in both hands. "JUST SHUT UP!" With all her might she threw the chair at the girl who had told her to take her things to the back of the room. No one had expected Mugi to do anything, which was probably why the chair actually made it's mark and knocked the girl clean off her feat and sailing onto the floor, knocking over a few desks in the process.

"I DID NOTHING WRONG!" Mugi continued, walking toward the girl, her loyal friends parting before her, giving Mugi a clean walkway to her prey. "I DID NOTHING TO YOU!" She picked up her chair again and lifted it over her head. "I DON'T DESERVE ANY OF THIS!" She could feel a mountain of satisfaction as the brought the chair down on her victim, hearing her cry out in pain as the chair crashed against her.

"Someone get a teacher!" Someone cried as Mugi continued unmercifully beating the girl.

"THE ONLY PERSON WHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT IS YOU!" Mugi shrieked, just as the girl tired to get up frantically. Mugi tried swinging at her in attempts to keep her from getting away from suffering every last bit of her rage, but her weapon slipped from her hands and soared through the air, finally making contact with the classroom window. It shattered on impact and the chair flew out the window, falling to the school grounds with a crash just as their homeroom teacher came charging in.

"Miss Kotobuki!" He cried. Mugi gasped, turning to him. The relief she felt from attacking her attackers washed away, leaving her standing dumbly amongst disarranged desks as the girl she'd taken her anger out on quickly limped away, crying to her friends.

"She's crazy!" She sobbed. "She's fucking crazy!"

* * *

"Miss Kotobuki, do you have anything to say?" The principal asked her. She'd been brought to the teacher's office, a crowd of girls watching from outside.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Mugi sobbed. "They're the ones… they're the ones…"

"Violence is strictly prohibited at school, Miss Kotobuki, you should know this!" The principal scolded. "And on top of that, you destroyed school property. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to write a letter of apology to the girl you attacked and give you a weeks suspension."

"Suspension!?" Mugi gasped.

"And with a suspension on your record, you won't be able to continue participating in any clubs this year." Mugi's eyes grew wide as she stared at him, speechless. "We've already discussed this with your other club members and they agreed."

"They… agreed…?" Mugi repeated in shock, tears falling down her cheeks.

"I've already called your parents- they'll be here to pick you up shortly." Mugi didn't respond, she was still stuck on the fact her friends had tossed her away so easily. They hadn't tried to defend her, or tell the principal a picture of her had been sent around. Her best friends had done nothing at all.

* * *

As soon as they got home, her father said nothing to Mugi, only smacked her across the cheek as hard as he could. Her mother said nothing in retaliation, only told her to go to her room while her and her father talked. Sitting on her bed, Mugi stared at her keyboard sitting against the wall of her room. In just a day, she'd lost everything she had. No one had done anything to help her. She was just casually tossed to the side, as if she was easily replaceable.

"They don't care… none of them care." She sobbed, getting up and angrily gripping her keyboard. "I hate them!" Without even thinking, she smashed her keyboard against the wall. Several of the keys clattered to the ground as the mechanics inside snapped and cracked. She beat her wall with her instrument a few more times before chucking the mangled thing to the ground amongst the parts that had already flown from it. It was so easily destroyed, just like her friendships with everyone.

Her cellphone chimed, breaking her from any further fits of rage she would have. Opening it up she felt a tiny bit of happiness wash over her. A text message from the one person who she was sure hadn't abandoned her yet.

"I'm at your house, I figured you'd need someone to talk to." It read.

"Alexis!" Mugi gasped, quickly tiptoeing out her door and down the hallways and stairs until she reached her front door. Slowly opening it, Alexis poked her head in, greeting Mugi with a warm smile.

"Hi!" she said, only to be pulled in by Mugi who wordlessly greeted her as she quietly crept back to her room. Then and only then did Mugi finally break down, resting her head on Alexis' shoulder as she started to cry.

"I'm sorry," Alexis whispered, hugging her tightly as she cried. "I feel horrible I wasn't there for you. I've been under the weather the last two days…"

"It's alright," Mugi sniffled, head still resting on her shoulder. "You're here now… you're the only one who cares…"

After Mugi's tears dried, Alexis helped Mugi pick up the scattered pieces of her wasted keyboard and comforted her late into the night. After two days of suffering, Mugi couldn't remember a time where she had felt so happy.

"Oh, wow, it's getting late." Alexis looked at her watch and then sorrowfully back to Mugi. "I really wish I could stay longer, I really do…"

"It's okay, I understand." Mugi smiled. "You'll come back tomorrow, right?" Alexis kindly smiled, gently kissing Mugi's forehead.

"Of course, what kind of person would I be if I just left you like you are now?" Mugi felt more tears gathering behind her eyes.

"T…Thank you." She hiccupped. "I…I love you!" Alexis smiled kindly as she headed for the door.

"I love you, too…Mugi."

* * *

"Ugh, why am I doing this again?" Shun asked himself, looking at the address Ritsu had given him and looking at the mansion-esque house that towered before him. After Mugi's suspension the day before, everyone felt horrible about it. But all of them were much too ashamed to confront her after what had happened, so they shamelessly sent him instead.

"I swear, Ritsu is so going to get it after this." He slowly trudged up to the door, pocketing the address. The gate to the place was left curiously open, but he chose not to question it and slipped in- walking up to the front doors and ringing the doorbell. Immediately afterward, however, he spotted a black trash bag right next to where he stood. A fowl smell came from it and flies gathered and landed on the surface.

"What's' this, their garbage?" He asked himself, pinching his nose as he gingerly picked up the heavy, smelly bag. As he picked it up something fell out and rolled around until it hit the edge of his shoe. Looking down Shun was overcome by horror and by nausea. Lying as his feet was a human head. It was a girl, her blank eyes looking up at him in fright, as if she was screaming, hair and skin bathed in blood.

"Oh my god… Oh my god!" Shun cried, stepping back, ready to run or puke or possibly both at the same time. But things only got worse as Mugi answered the door.

"Shun? Why are you-?" She looked over to where his eyes were glued to find the same, horrific scene: The head of the girl who only hours before said she'd return- the girl who told her she loved her. There was Alexis' head at Shun's feet, other body parts sticking out of the black bag Shun had dropped.

"NO!" Mugi screamed. "NO! ALEXIS!" Hysteria overcame her as she ran and fell to her knees, hands hovering over her lover's decapitated head. Her entire body violently quaked as she looked down at the sickening sight- but, for the life of her, couldn't look away. Alexis' eyes seemed to be pleading with her to help, but it was far too late. Mugi's blood ran cold as it felt as if the ground vanished beneath her feet. "NONONONONOOOOOO!" She'd placed her hands on the sides of her face and, unknowingly, bared her nails into her skin as she hunched over the head.

In a panic, Shun began to run. He had to go tell someone! But he felt someone snatch at his hair and throw him to the ground. Above him stood Mugi, looking at him with a maniacal glare, teeth clenched.

"YOU DID THIS!" She shrieked. "YOU…YOU… AAAAAUGH!" She kicked him in the side, knocking the wind out of him. Tears rushed from her eyes as she continued. She was in despair, but even more so, she was enraged. She was dead, the last person who gave a damn about her was gone. He had done it! He had! There was no other explanation, and voices damning him echoed again and again in her head. He murdered her! He did it! He had to pay- yes, pay!

"Mu- Mugi!" Shun coughed as Mugi continued to kick him. "It-it wasn't-"

"SHUT UP, YOU MURDERER!" Mugi screamed, kicking him again. "YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" She picked up a rock that decorated her lawn and stood over Shun holding it high above her head. He should die! He needs to die! Kill him,_ kill him_! "YOU ALL DESERVE TO DIE!"

Mugi had never taken a human life- she hardly even killed spiders or insects. But as she brought the rock down against Shuns skull, she couldn't help but feel her sadness slowly drain away. It was an amazing feeling, just like when she had beaten one of her classmates with her chair. Taking it out on other people –no- punishing people for their sins made it feel like her sorrows were being sucked from her.

Blood from Shun's skull exploded as the rock made its first contact, covering the ground and Mugi. Shun's body immediately went limp, but she wasn't satisfied. She continued to beat his head again and again, grunting and screaming each time she did. Blood soaked into her clothes- deep enough she could feel it against her skin. With every sickening smack the grin on her face grew wider. This was what Alexis would want! Alexis would want her to avenge her- to get back at the person who killed her! She'd be happy!

Finally she stopped, Shun's beaten in face feeling like jelly underneath the weight of the rock.

"He…hehehe…did you see that, Alexis? He's dead! I killed him, just for you!" She smiled, looking up at the sky with madness in her eyes. "I love you so much, I'll kill for you-" She paused. No. She wasn't done yet. A piece of paper hung out of Shun's pocket. Snatching it with blood stained fingers, she looked at the contents. It was just her address, written in familiar handwriting. Angrily she crumpled it up and threw it at Shun's corpse. Alexis hadn't been avenged yet, there was still the mater of the people who had planned it all- the ones truly behind it:

The people she once called her friends. And she knew exactly where they'd be that afternoon. Plenty of time to think over how she could punish them.

* * *

"It isn't the same, you guys." Azusa sighed, taking off her guitar strap. They were at the live house, practicing for the show they'd been invited to play during the break. Everyone else had left them to clean up, leaving them short and sweet instructions to turn off the lights and that they could leave through the back and the door would lock behind them.

"You're right." Ritsu agreed, looking to the empty space their keyboard player used to stand. They'd gotten a replacement for the show, who'd already left. She was good, but then again, she wasn't Mugi. "But…that photo…"

"That photo is what started this whole thing in the first place!" Yui told them, looking at the ground in shame. "We didn't do anything to help her… didn't we?" Everyone imitated her, looking shamefully at the stage floor. Even if it was the slightest bit, they were to blame.

"Maybe we should go there personally." Mio said.

"Well she probably turned Shun away, I haven't heard from him all day, so he probably failed." Ritsu told them. "Do you really think she'll be so welcoming to us?"

"…" Yui looked up at the stage lights. "Mugi's a good person at heart. If we go to her house with snacks and tell her we're sorry, I'm sure she'll understand." She smiled. "We're all friends, after all." Everyone nodded.

"Yeah, let's go make our friend happy." Ritsu agreed as they left the stage, shutting off the lights. But as they walked backstage, who should be there but Mugi, sitting on one of the seats. She looked at them with a cold gaze, but her lips were drawn up in a smile, and they looked back at her in surprise.

"Mugi!" Mio exclaimed. "What are you…when did you…?"

"I decided to pay you all a little visit. I needed to drop something off with you anyway… A little… Gift." She smirked, holding up a brown paper bag, the bottom soaked in something red that dripped onto the floor.

"W…what is-?" Azusa gasped.

"Just a little something I needed to return." Mugi shrugged, tossing it at their feet, the red liquid splattering everywhere as the contents slowly tumbled out. "Or should I say…someone." Ritsu was the first to scream. It was a head, or at least it looked like it was. The face was bashed in to the point it was just a mess of bloody lumps, but a familiar head of blood-soaked hair revealed the truth to who it originally was: Shun. The four girls squealed in fright, backing up and tripping over themselves and each other.

"What, surprised?" Mugi asked, tilting her head at her screaming friends who were backing away from her and her little bloody gift. "Even after you sent him to drop off my dead girlfriend's body at my doorstep... I figured I'd return the favor."

"W…what!?" Mio gasped, trying not to gag. "We…we never…"

"Shun…" Ritsu sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "How…how could…?"

"SHUT UP!" Mugi snapped, standing up to reveal she was also holding a bat. She swung it wildly at her side. "IT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR ABANDONING ME AND FOR TAKING AWAY THE MOST PRECIOUS THING IN MY LIFE!" She swung the bat again, taking an uneasy step forward as she did. "NOW I'LL TAKE AWAY PRECIOUS THINGS FROM YOU!" She charged at the group, who all fled in different directions save for Azusa, who, in the confusion, couldn't find a place to run to. Mugi's bat collided with the young girl's face, sending her flying backwards, a trail of blood following her down.

"AZUSA!" Yui cried as she hit the ground, moaning and crying in pain as she clutched her face. She writhed in pain on the ground like a maggot, and as Mugi watched her, she wanted more than nothing than to stomp on her as if she really were one.

"Still not enough." Mugi laughed, kicking Azusa. "Poor little thing, I'd hate to have her suffer, unlike how you treated me." She turned to her cowering friends who could only watch as Azusa cowered at Mugi's feet, still howling. "Unlike you I have some mercy and I'd hate to have her be in so much pain." She smiled sweetly just before she brought her bat down on Azusa's face, a sickening crack echoing through the room as her painful moans ceased. Mugi pressed the bat against Azusa's skull, a light squish resonating from it as she twisted it. "See?"

"No!" Ritsu cried. "Mugi! Stop this!"

"If you didn't want me to do this, why didn't you help me in the first place? Why didn't you try and stop the bullying- try and at least keep me in your little club?" Mugi growled, kicking Azusa's body aside and walking over to Ritsu, dragging the blood-covered bat behind her. Ritsu tried to run only to find she'd been backed into a wall. Tears beginning to flow from her eyes she looked back and fourth wildly trying and failing to find some means of escape.

"You of all people should feel just like me now, little Ritsu." Mugi laughed. "The one you loved more than anything is dead now, how does it feel?" Ritsu didn't answer, only looked away, pressing herself closer to the wall in fright. "How does it feel to know he's dead because of you!?" Mugi smashed her bat against the wall, causing Ritsu to try out, turning around just enough so Mugi could tightly grasp her neck, clutching it hard enough to cut off her hair. Gasping, Ritsu tried to struggle free and pry her hands off.

"You'll be joining him soon, don't get so frantic," Mugi laughed, leaning in close. "Don't you want to see your little boy-toy again?" In a futile attempt to get Mugi to let go, Ritsu clawed at her face, opening up a wound in her cheek with her nails.

"Stop…this…" Ritsu gasped. Mugi glared at her, pressing her up against the wall as she tightened her grip, and returned Ritsu's futile attempt at attack by digging her own nails into Ritsu's sensitive flesh as she choked her.

"Stop? STOP?! YOU WANT ME TO STOP!?" She screamed. Ritsu began to flail in a panic as her lips began to turn blue, her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth. "What makes you think I would stop, Ritsu!? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WOULD AFTER I'VE LOST EVERYTHING!?" A long moment passed before Ritsu's body fell lip in Mugi's grasp. Mugi started laughing in response, like Ritsu's death was some sort of joke to her. Throwing her body to the ground she took her bat and began to beat her mercilessly, blood soon flying each time she smashed her bat against her body- each time shrieking with some sort of psychotic pleasure.

"STOP IT!" Mio cried, "STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!" Mugi obeyed, finally leaving Ritsu's battered corpse to rest.

"Oh, are you in such a hurry to die, Mio?" Mugi asked her. "Shy, little Mio, finally speaking up about what she wants."

"Please, stop! We didn't do anything!" Mio cried, backing up and walking backwards in the process.

"You're right, Mio, you didn't do anything." Mugi agreed. "You just sat around and watched while I was bullied, you left me by myself in the clubroom, you allowed my girlfriend to die! You're right, you didn't do ANYTHING!" She angrily swung her bat again, ready to bring it down on Mio's head, who pulled herself up, but not in time to escape her blow entirely. The blow struck her leg instead, a sickening crack following the impact as Mio gasped and fell back down to the ground, mouth open in a silent scream as she shakily reached down to her broken leg.

"Does it hurt, Mio!?" Mugi asked, "Tell me, does it hurt!?" Without waiting for Mio to answer, she smashed her bat against Mio's other leg, and Mio finally managed to scream as she wildly tried to pull herself away from Mugi with her arms.

"Mugi, please! Don't do this!" Yui cried from behind her. Mugi looked over her shoulder, not even bothering to turn around to face her.

"Finally resorting to begging?" Mugi chuckled. "It's much too late…" laughing she pulled out a gun that was hidden under her skirt. "You can't change my mind now that I've gone so far!"

"NO!" Yui cried just as Mugi pulled the trigger, the shot striking Mio in the back of the head. A spray of blood flew from the wound, dying the ground around her a light red with the dusting as her body went limp.

"No…" Yui sobbed, falling to her knees.

"Now you're the only one left." Mugi told her in an almost giddy tone. "No one here to comfort you or dry your tears. No one to tell you everything will be fine. Does it hurt, Yui? Does it hurt knowing you're all alone?" Yui didn't respond, the only sounds she made here loud sobs as she cried, eyes fixed on Mio's motionless body that blood had begun to pool around.

"Nothing to say? Nothing to tell me before I deliver the most cruel punishment of all?"

"I'm sorry…" Yui mumbled. "I'm sorry… for not being there for you!" She looked up, eyes widening in shock to find where Mugi had pointed the gun. She had the barrel pressed against her head, her face calm and happy for the first time that she'd arrived. She seemed like normal Mugi again, who happily served them tea and played along in her crazy antics.

"Now you'll know what true suffering feels like. It's a feeling much worse than death, you know?" Mugi told her, smirking. "The feeling that you've lost everything, and that no one will be there for you. It's a terrible pain to bear."

"Mugi, you don't have to do this!" Yui cried.

"On the contrary, Yui, even if I didn't want to, I have to. It's the only way I'll be reunited with the person I love the most- the person you all stole from me!" Yui opened her mouth to protest, but Mugi's finger pressed down on the trigger before she could say anything at all. With a bang, Mugi delivered the cruelest punishment of all.

* * *

It had been a few days since the incident: the bodies of four high school girls had been found at a local live house, the fifth body of a older boy found nearby. The only suspect was the one girl from the group the four other dead girls had been in a band with: Hirasawa Yui. She had been present before the slaughter and disappeared before anyone found the bodies. No one had seen her since- not her teachers, not her parents, not even her younger sister. The police were still searching for her, but it seemed that she had simply vanished.

"Yui…" Ui sobbed. She sat huddled on the couch, starting at her sister's picture as she cried. She hadn't come home for days and was a prime suspect in a the murder of her friends. She didn't want to believe a word, no matter how much the evidence pointed to her. All she wanted was for her to come home.

Suddenly, someone stumbled through the door, causing her to jump. Much to her surprise it was Yui.

"YUI!" She cried, running to her, hugging her. "I…I missed you so much! I've been so worried! Where did you go!?"

"I'm sorry for worrying you, Ui," Yui told her in a monotone voice as she returned her sister's loving embrace. "But I need your help with something…"

"Anything! Anything!" Ui sobbed, still hugging her sister.

"Won't you help me ease my pain?" Yui asked. Unfortunately for Ui, in her excitement she didn't see the knife Yui had clutched in her hand. "There's a method I learned that can help, but I need you in order to do it…"

"What?" Ui asked. "What do you mean?"

"I love you, Ui." Yui whispered. "I'm sorry."


	5. V

Ritsu awoke with a start, gasping for breath as sweat trickled down her face. Immediately after bolting upright a wave of nausea over came her as she coughed and dry heaved. With quivering hands she felt up and down her body, fingers tracing over her skin and clothes frantically. If it had all been a dream, it had been much too realistic. She'd never had a nightmare so vivid before, nor had she ever had one where she had actually died.

Even in her wakened state, panting and trying to shake off the feeling of needing to vomit, she could remember each and every aspect of the dream from start to finish. Mugi had flown into a rage and killed her! She'd been strangled to death! Reaching up to gently wrap her fingers around her throat she shivered, counting the beats of her pulse that beat against her hands. After five, heavy beats she could no longer keep her sickened feeling at bay. Pushing away her covers, she ran for the bathroom, just barely making it to the toilet before she expulsed the meager contents of her stomach.

"It…it was just a dream," she gasped, leaning over her toilet, spitting up nasty-tasting saliva that burned at her lips. "It wasn't real…"

* * *

First day back at school and Ritsu couldn't help but feel she'd been through it before. She somehow knew exactly what class she'd been placed into for the year without even looking, which didn't strike her as odd until she was walking up the stairs. The entire day was like listening to people say things she could have sworn she heard before, like she was watching a movie she'd seen once before.

"I swear, I've been having the worst déjà vu today," She told Mio as they made their way to the clubroom.

"Well, this is our third year at this school," Mio said thoughtfully. "Maybe things are just slowly starting to seem the same now that we've gone through the same procedure for two years."

"I guess, but it's not just that!" Ritsu exclaimed, opening the doors to the clubroom. Yui, Azusa and Sawako were already there. That and Mugi, who was taking out the tea set for that days snack. Ritsu felt her body freeze. Mugi was looking cheerful as ever, and she certainly wasn't coming at her with a bat like in her dream. But no matter how many times she said it to herself, she couldn't shake the feeling of fear from being in her presence. Every time she looked over at her she couldn't shake the images that were still crystal clear in her head.

"So, Ritsu, where's that boyfriend you kept on telling us about?" Yui asked curiously.

"He should be here soon. Chances are he'll walk extra fast since I promised him creampuffs." Ritsu laughed, still trying to ignore the violent scenes playing in her head.

"This better not be just a ploy to get an extra creampuff for yourself," Mio muttered as she sat down. "I still don't find it too believable that you, of all people, actually found someone who's interested in you."

"Shut up, he does exist!" Ritsu defended. "And you might not be able to see it, but I swayed him with my feminine charms." Ritsu sat down and flipped her hair effeminately, and felt her face twitch as Azusa, of all people, snorted.

"What? You want to start something, you little brat?"

"Now, now, Azu-nyan, I'm sure Ritsu wouldn't lie to us." Yui said with her usual, spacey smile. "Plus it's rude to fight in front of a guest!"

"A guest?" Everyone turned around to see a boy in a uniform that belonged to another school nearby poking his head in. Hair hung in his face, but it wasn't hard to tell he was either confused or ready to turn his tail and flee.

"Is this a bad time? I can come back…"

"Shun!" Ritsu cheered, running over and pulling him in. "See! I told you he existed! You thought I was lying all this time, but you were wrong!" Everyone stared at the boy Ritsu had in her clutches in shock -save for Mugi, who seemed oddly indifferent to the development and more interested in the teapot she was staring at- and he stared back at them the same. Getting pulled in and having his existence proclaimed loudly by Ritsu wasn't what he'd been expecting.

"Um… welcome!" Sawako finally spoke up, everyone else doing the same in a muddled chorus of equally awkward welcomes and nodding.

"So… is it true you guys have creampuffs?"

The meeting began as normal once the shock of Ritsu actually having a boyfriend settled in. Well, everything seemed normal, save for Mugi, who's own spacey-ness was putting Yui to shame. Already, Shun had swiped her creampuff out from under her nose and she hadn't even paid it any mind if she even noticed at all. And again, the whole situation seemed familiar to Ritsu, like everything that had gone on thus far had already happened before.

"Mugi!" Yui exclaimed as the tea Mugi had been pouring for her overflowed from her cup. Gasping, she pulled the teapot back as Yui scooted away and stood up, just barely dodging the spill as it overflowed from the table onto the club room floor. Again, it all seemed so familiar to Ritsu, even though, to date, Mugi had never over-poured anyone's tea.

"Oh no!" Mugi gasped, frantically looking at the spill. "I'm sorry, I was spacing out! I'm sorry!"

"Are you all right?" Ritsu asked. As she asked suddenly a whole new bloom of images appeared in her mind. Time itself seemed to slow as each scene played out before her. The spill, Mugi suddenly acting strangely…

A girl.

A kiss.

"Heheh, I see right through you, little Mugi." Sawako darkly chuckled. "I know that face well, it's the face of someone who's fallen in love!"

"Is it a girl!?" Ritsu exclaimed, standing up from her chair. Only a second later did she realize how ridiculous she had just sounded as everyone turned around to look at her. She had wanted to validate what she had just seen, but in hindsight blurting out her suspicions wasn't the best idea.

"What in the world, Ritsu!?" Mio scolded. "Saying something so rude right off the bat…" Ritsu spaced out the rest of the small lecture Mio gave her as her eyes fell on Mugi, who had turned away almost in shame, a light blush alighting her cheeks.

"I…I have to go!" She muttered.

"You don't have to, Ritsu was just being a jerk." Mio sighed.

"No, it's fine, I just remembered I have to do some errands I need to do." Mugi explained. As she did, Ritsu couldn't help but feel her eyes gracing her for a second, looking at her in some sort of curious surprise before she turned for the door. "Sorry, just practice without me, okay?"

"O…Okay!" Mio agreed as she ran out the door.

"Those must be some important errands." Yui thought aloud. "She seemed to be in a hurry." Ritsu looked to the door, the images that she had just seen still just as fresh in her mind as the horrific dream she'd had. She'd been right about the girl- Mugi's reaction was quite enough to give away that fact. If the vision was just as accurate throughout than something bad was going to happen. She didn't know what- what was going to happen wasn't as clear, but something in the images she'd been shown seemed murky and foreboding.

"I need to go, too!" She finally announced, after playing with the idea of following after Mugi for a full few seconds.

"What?" Shun asked, looking at Ritsu confused, along with everyone else.

"You, too?" Azusa questioned, looking suspicious.

"Yeah, I just remembered, I need to do something…" She turned to Shun, who was starting to rise. "No, no, just me! You stay here and be social!"

"Eh!?"

"Just do it!" She groaned, leaping up and rushing for the door.

"What about your creampuff!?"

"You can have it, I knew you were going to eat it anyway!"

Ritsu ran down the stairs, peering around just in case Mugi was still around, repeating the same process after she descended to each individual floor. It seemed she'd been in more of a hurry than she figured. Finally, after running just past the campus gates she saw her with the same exact girl from her vision. Ducking back to where she wouldn't be spotted, she watched them. There was no mistaking it: the brown hair, the brown eyes, when she patted Mugi's head like she was an obedient dog- aach thing had flashed before her eyes moments before, and because of this girl, something bad was going to happen.

A bus pulled up shortly after she began her stake out and both girls boarded the bus together, Mugi looking ever so willing to follow after the taller brown-haired girl. It didn't occur to Ritsu she should board too until the bus pulled away, and trying the hale it down would only cause a scene and blow her cover.

But she knew where the two of them were going. She'd seen it. It would take a bit more time to get to on foot, but she wasn't going to sit back and wait for something to happen now that she knew something bad was just peeking over the horizon.

"I've been given the opportunity to stop bad things from happening!" She thought to herself as she ran in the direction the bus had just driven. "There's no way I'm not going to do anything about it!"

* * *

Ritsu bent over, hands on buckling knees as she gasped for breath. She'd made it to her destination without even a single stop to catch her breath or rest her aching legs. Trying to regain control of her lungs, she looked around, still hunched over. Even in a straight run from start to finish, it had taken her much too long. The sun was setting, dying everything in a deep, crimson glow. Mugi and her mysterious companion were nowhere to be seen from where she stood, but the very thought of moving anywhere hurt her feet.

A sudden vision of blood commanded her to move otherwise. It was a quick vision and she hardly had enough time to catch the details. But, even for a split second, the desperate cry of screaming followed by a sickening splattering sound made her feel queasy. She had to find them, whether her body wanted to move or not.

She walked along the streets, eyes darting back and forth in search of the two girls. The place was heavily crowded that day and it made her worry she wouldn't be able to spot them at all.

"Did you get the shot?" She heard a girl ask her friend as they passed. Something, she wasn't sure what, made her focus on their conversation out of all the chatter around her. Something about what they were talking about stood out to her and it sent chills up her spine.

"Yeah, wasn't that a girl from our school?"

"No way!" The girl brought her phone closer to her face and gasped. "Shit, I think she's in my class!"

Time began to crawl at a snails pace once more, more snapshots of what could be appearing before her eyes.

That photo!

"Hey, Wait!" She gasped, whipping around only to run into someone and lose the two girls in the crowd as she took whoever it was she had run into down with her.

"OW!" The person cried out as the two of them hit the ground.

"I'm so sorry!" Ritsu gasped, her attention more drawn to trying to find where the two girls had just gone. No luck, they had disappeared in the heavy crowd, taking the photo with them. She had to go after them- every second they got further and further away she felt like panicking more and more. Not wanting to be rude, though, she turned to the person who she'd knocked down to apologize.

It was the girl she'd seen with Mugi!

"You!" She exclaimed, getting a confused look back from the girl.

"Do I know you?" She asked her, narrowing her eyes.

"Ah! Sorry…I…I thought you were someone else!" Ritsu lied, standing to her feet and offering the girl her hand. "Sorry for knocking you down, I wasn't looking where I was going!" The girl looked up at her with an almost annoyed glare as she took her hand and got back to her feet.

"Be more careful next time, okay?"

"Right! Sorry again!" Ritsu nodded, bowing to the girl as she turned and left her bowing to absolutely no one. Lifting her head she saw her turn a corner, disappearing in the opposite direction the two other girls had gone. Looking between the two routes, Ritsu bit her lip. The photo would be devastating, she saw exactly what it could do. On the other hand, the other vision she'd had made her worry even more. There had to be a reason she was shown one before the other. Taking one last look in the direction that two girls had gone she quickly ran in the other direction after the brown-haired girl.

The quick turn immediately led her into a darkened alleyway choked by garbage. It took her eyes a moment to finally adjust to the sudden lack of light, and once she could make out shapes she came face to face with the same girl driven up against one of the walls by an older man who was much taller than her. At first, she figured they were a couple as she ducked behind a nearby trash can, but as their conversation finally reached her ears she came to find that wasn't the case.

"I'd rather not have you ruining my star pupil with that filthy little mouth of yours," The older man told her sternly. "I've waited ages for someone like her, and I refuse to have you ruin her. She doesn't belong to you- not anymore." He angrily gripped her chin and pulled her back as she tried to flee. Her frightened squeal echoed through the ally, but no one outside seemed to notice.

"Maybe…I should teach you a little lesson-"

"HEY!" Ritsu shouted, jumping from her hiding place. "What do you think you're doing!?" The girl's attacker didn't seem shocked in the least. He simply let go of the girl and lazily looked over his shoulder at her, eyes full of enjoyment more than surprise he'd been caught.

"Oh, dear, it seems we'll have to continue later then, won't we?" He chuckled darkly to the girl, eyes still fixed on Ritsu with interest. "But I assure you, just because my lesson plans get a tad delayed doesn't mean I won't be able to teach you anything. I refuse to have a good opportunity to teach my lesson to snot-nosed girls like you slip through my fingers. And I assure you, what you learn will be very important towards my dear Tsumugi's education."

"Hold on a second!" Ritsu snapped. "What are you planning on doing to Mugi!?" The older man grinned in an almost maniacal way that sent a shiver up Ritsu's spine.

"I intend to mold her…to shape her into the greatest tool the world has ever seen." He explained, casually turning around and heading for the other end of the alleyway. "And cockroaches like this girl will only hinder her potential and are only worth a side-lesson." Without any more explanation, the taller man disappeared into the crowd and out of sight. And as soon as he vanished, the girl slid to the ground, looking nervous and distressed.

"Hey, you okay?" Ritsu gasped, running to her side. "You aren't hurt, are you?" The girl frantically shook her head as she looked down at her feet, covering her head as if she was expecting someone to strike her.

"Who was that guy?" The girl shook her head again.

"I... It's none of your business!" She ended up shouting, shaking her head. "He just told me to stay away from Tsumugi or else..."

"Or else what?"

"Exactly what he just said!" The girl shivered. "Or he'd teach me a lesson…"

* * *

Ritsu ended up having to escort the poor girl home. She desperately wanted to ask her a slew of questions about what her and Mugi had done, but she'd certainly been through enough. The last thing she wanted was to bombard her with questions. The best thing to do would be to simply ask her or Mugi the next day instead.

"Thanks…for helping me back there." The girl bowed once they got to her house, "I guess I owe you one."

"No, no, it's fine, you don't owe me anything!" Ritsu smiled. "Just stay safe-" Her words seemed to trigger it again- the same mysterious visions. They blurred past her vision at almost a blinding speed, screams and breaking glass echoing from them as they sped past her vision.

"THE ONLY PERSON WHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT IS YOU!"

"Hey!" Ritsu jumped, feeling the girl touch her shoulder, cutting off the vision just as it began to become clear, the distant sounds from the final cry from the vision fading away. "You okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Just a bit tired." Ritsu put on a fake smile for her, shrugging. "I should get going."

"…Alright." The girl said, looking at Ritsu suspiciously. "Thanks again."

"No problem!" Ritsu grinned. "Anything to help Mugi's girlfriend!"

"What?"

"Ah! Um…nothing…I…" Ritsu babbled finally turning on her heel and running down the street. "I'll see you around!"

* * *

Ritsu rubbed her eyes as she walked to school the next day. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. The visions had come and gone all throughout the night, all dealing with more blurred images she couldn't focus and people whispering sharp words and cackling. She could still hear the laughter now, people talking in hushed tones, spreading rumors about someone. And with each moment that passed they seemed to grow until she walked onto the school grounds, and left her ears ringing.

Nothing seemed off, the usual cliques were gathered around the schoolyard. The only thing that seemed odd was they all seemed to be gathered around their phones.

Oh, no!

Ritsu ran over to one of the gaggles of girls, shoving her way into their circle and craning her neck to see what they were all looking at. They all groaned and yelled at her for doing so and eventually pushed her back out of their group, but Ritsu had seen the picture long enough to have her fears realized. It was a clear shot of Mugi and the girl from the other night sharing a kiss in an alleyway where they were sure they wouldn't be spotted. A wave of panic swept over Ritsu as she hurried into the school to find Mugi looking shocked a the pair of demolished indoor shoes in her hand, her mouth agape in confusion. Her shoe locker itself had been written on as well.

"M…Mugi-" Ritsu greeted, trying to seem cheerful. Mugi jumped, obscuring both her shoes and her locker.

"G-Good morning!" Mugi said shyly, looking down at the floor. The two of them stood awkwardly before each other, not sure of what to say. And now that they were silent, Ritsu could clearly hear the harsh words girls muttered as they passed.

"Doesn't that girl know? I wouldn't talk to that dyke if I were her." Ritsu watched in horror as Mugi's expression grew more desperate and saddened.

"I…I need to go!" She gasped, switching her out door shoes with her indoor shoes and quickly running away, revealing her locker that she had been hiding from Ritsu's view. She felt her heart sink, seeing the condition her locker was in.

"You could have stopped this!" a voice in her head cried.

The entire rest of the day was just listening to people spread rumor and rumor about Mugi and there was nothing she could do. Already she had been sent three separate images of the same thing: Mugi and her new mysterious lover sharing a kiss that wasn't supposed to be anyone else's business. By now the small flame had already flared up into a massive wild fire that was far beyond her control. It hurt to hear so many people put Mugi down, but there was nothing she could do. All there was to do was wait until she met up with everyone from the light music club. They'd be able to help, she knew it!

"Shun?" Ritsu walked up the stairs to find Shun waiting for her at the door. "I never expected to see you here before me. Why are you waiting outside?"

"Mugi is-" Shun began, just as Azusa and Mio walked out, looking nervous.

"Ah! Ritsu…" Mio shifted her gaze from side to side. "Um…club is canceled for today…"

"Why is that!?" Her question was answered as she heard Mugi muttering something from inside the clubroom as Mio and Azusa awkwardly shuffled away.

"You know better than to judge me over a stupid picture, right!?"

"I'm sorry!" Yui cried as she ran out of the room. Ritsu gasped, watching her friend run down the stairs and out of sight. There was just no way her friends had abandoned Mugi just like everyone else. Looking at Shun frantically she ran into the clubroom to find Mugi on her knees with her face buried in her hands as she sobbed.

"Mugi…" Ritsu mumbled, walking over to her sobbing friend. She rested her hand on her shoulder that immediately went from shaking like a leaf to going absolutely ridged as she turned around and smacked Ritsu's hand away.

"Just leave me alone!" Mugi cried. "You've seen it, right, that stupid picture? Why don't you just run away like everyone else!?"

"THE ONLY PERSON WHO DESERVES PUNISHMENT IS YOU!"

Ritsu's eyes went wide as the same words she had heard from the night before echoed in her mind, visions of glass flying through the air and sounds of people crying out following after it.

"She's crazy! She's fucking crazy!"

"Ritsu!" Shun hissed, grabbing her hand. Ritsu jumped, the contact pulling her away from the vision, bringing her back to reality with Mugi sobbing pathetically at her feet.

"We should go." Shun urged. Ritsu bit her lip, watching Mugi's shoulders shake as she continued to cry. There was something important about her vision, she'd seen the same thing twice before. She had to stop it from happening, whatever it was. Seeing Mugi crying at her feet was too much to bear.

"R…Right…" Ritsu nodded, allowing herself to be pulled out of the room, eyes still fixed on Mugi.

"I will stop that vision from happening!" She thought to herself. "I promise!"

* * *

"A fight, where!?"

Ritsu felt herself shiver, hearing a few girls running past her the next day. Several other people ran past as well, all talking about a possible fight that had broken out, like it was some sort of event. Before she could ask herself whether or not it was her vision she heard a scream come from the room just down the hallway. She ran as fast as she could, bounding in the room just in time to see Mugi pick up a chair and begin to beat a girl who was down at her feet mercilessly with it. It was a frightening scene to see, the usual even tempered Mugi beating up another girl whose screams became louder and more desperate with each attack.

That worst part of it was, past the anger burning in her eyes, Mugi was smiling.

"MUGI!" Ritsu cried, grabbing a hold of her friend's arms mid-swing. "MUGI YOU HAVE TO STOP THIS!"

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Mugi screamed, easily throwing Ritsu off of her and soaring into the desks beside them. She glared at the girl who she had been assaulting as she tried to get up and limp away.

"THE ONLY ONE WHO DESERVES PUNISMENT IS YOU!" Ritsu watched in shock as the chair Mugi had grasped in her hands slip from her grip and fly across the room. She looked at Mugi in horror as the sound of glass echoed from behind her. This was exactly the same scene as her vision, and despite her efforts she couldn't stop it at all. Mugi looked back at her, looking just as shocked, her hands that had once gripped the chair with monstrous force now shaking.

"Ri…tsu…" She muttered just as the homeroom teacher burst in to see the damage.

"She's crazy! She's fucking crazy!"

It was all the same, down to the last detail, except now she was among the chaos, looking up at Mugi as the frightening smile she had once been wearing vanished from sight. Watching the whole thing, Ritsu couldn't help but remember the words the man from the other day had told her.

"I intend to mold her…to shape her into the greatest tool the world has ever seen."

* * *

"What do you mean she can't attend club meetings!?" Ritsu gasped, slamming her hands down on the table. Her friends all jumped, looking up at Ritsu in surprise.

"There wasn't anything we could do, Ritsu!" Mio finally spoke up. "With a suspension on her record-"

"I DON'T CARE!" Ritsu yelled, staring down her friend angrily. "How can you all abandon Mugi when she needed it most!?" Everyone looked down at the ground, unable to answer.

"We didn't…I mean…we…" Yui tried speaking up.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!?" Ritsu gasped. That was right, no one else knew what was going to happen. She was the only one who was tortured by the fact she knew exactly what would happen and couldn't do a thing to stop things from taking their natural path. Everyone else was oblivious. Everyone else didn't care.

"Ritsu, please, calm down-" Azusa began to plead.

"Shut up!" Ritsu hissed, head hanging low. "You all… _We all_abandoned her because of that stupid picture!" The room fell dead silent. "And now we're just going to sit around drinking tea like nothing's wrong…" Ritsu frowned angrily, swiping her arm across the table and knocking all the glass cups and plates onto the floor that shattered into pieces on impact. Ritsu couldn't tell who she was more angry with: Her friends who refused to lift a finger for Mugi or herself for trying to help but wasn't able to change a single thing. Either way, everything was leading up to something dark and terrifying.

"It…It's not that we don't care!" Yui stammered, looking between Ritsu and the now demolished tea set. "It's just we can't do anything… no matter how much we want to…"

"Bull _SHIT_!" Ritsu snapped. "YOU'RE NOT THE ONE WHO-" A terrifying image flew past her eyes, as if to silence her. It was only for a brief second, but this time she was able to make out all the tiny details. The girl from before, the girl who had been the cause of all Mugi's pain…

"She's going to die…"

"What?" Ritsu didn't bother explaining to her shocked friends as she bolted out of the clubroom. The frightening scenes that had flashed before her eyes so many times finally made sense. It wasn't the photo or the suspension or being thrown out of the club that would break Mugi. It was the loss of the one person who caused it all and it was her final chance to save her friends from the terrifying blood-soaked nightmare.

* * *

"Hey, what are you doing?" Ritsu slowly awoke on the ground outside Mugi's house. She vaguely remembered seeing the girl from before walk into Mugi's house and decided to wait for her outside the gates. Now everything was bathed in the darkness of nighttime and someone was standing over her, shaking her awake.

"What, _what_!?" Ritsu gasped, looking up to see the girl, looking down at her with a confused look.

"Hey, you're the girl from a few days ago, aren't you?" She exclaimed. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, me?" Ritsu muttered, quickly standing up and dusting herself off. "I…I was planning on giving Mugi a visit, but I decided to wait until you came out…" she tried feigning surprise as she looked around. "But I think it's a bit too late, isn't it?" The girl looked at her curiously for a moment before smiling. "Huh? What?"

"Nothing… Mugi's just convinced her friends don't care about her…" She told her, smile weakening. "But I guess, if you came to see her, you all can't be that bad a bunch, huh?" Ritsu nodded.

"I'll come by tomorrow and see her. For now, want to walk home together?"

"Sure-" The girl gasped, stopping in her tracks. Underneath the glow of the streetlights was the older man from before, eying both of them in an almost amused way.

"Oh, my, it seems my star pupil is a little worse for wear these days thanks to a certain little rat." He sighed. "I'd rather not have her drop out, not when she has so much potential. I suppose I'll have to jump to the final sooner than expected…" With a blinding agility, he rushed at them, so fast Ritsu couldn't comprehend what was going on until something warm splashed against the side of her face. Time itself seemed to stop as she turned to see a knife buried deep in the girl's neck, a shower of blood now raining down on her and the man who had thrust the blade into her.

Her only chance to stop terrible things from happening had died right before her eyes.

Ritsu tried to scream, only to have her attacker cover her mouth with a blood-stained hand, quietly shushing her with a finger to his lips as his previous prey fell to the ground.

"You should feel honored.," He said as her vision began to blur and everything he said started to grow fainter and fainter. "You get to see my greatest lesson I'll ever teach in action."

* * *

Ritsu awoke in darkness, only the sound of her own, panicked breathing reaching her ears as it bounced off the walls she couldn't see. Every inch of her body seemed to ache as she tried to move her limbs, but to no avail. Heavy breathing slowly escalating into panicked hyperventilating she frantically looked about the darkness.

"HELP!" She cried, the echo of her desperate cry repeating all around her. "SOMEBODY HELP!"

"Oh, you're awake." A voice chuckled from the darkness. "I was hoping you'd come around sooner, but I suppose it's better than loosing another lab rat." Blinding, fluorescent lights bathed the room in a painful, white glow that burned Ritsu's eyes. Squinting and flinching in pain, she slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a completely white room, the only thing that stood out among the walls being a single door and the man standing right beside it. It was the same man who'd just killed the very girl she had been trying to save. A wide grin spread across his lips as he eyed her with interest.

"Well, I guess it is true, you can't really feel wounds when you can't see them…" He thought allowed, slowly waltzing over to Ritsu, who tried moving again only to get the same painful response, or lack there of, from her motionless limbs. At first, she figured she'd been bound to where she sat, but as her eyes traveled downward she found nothing holding her down to the chair at all. What she found was much worse. Her arms and legs were littered with bloody holes, some appearing to go all the way through both her arms and legs.

"A… Ah…" Ritsu gagged, the full extent of her injuries now revealed. Now that she could clearly see each deep, nasty gash on her limbs under the blinding light she could feel every single blinding needle of pain.

"This is what you get for trying to foil my plans." The man's grin morphed into a sickened frown as he looked down at her as she began to writhe in her seat. "But it all was for not. The star pupil I had hand picked wasn't as mentally capable of my final lesson as I thought." Ritsu's wide, frightened eyes turned to him, quivering lips parting with difficulty.

"W…What…"

"Your dear friend, Tsumugi, is dead," The man spat.

"H… H… How…?" Ritsu felt warm tears gather around her eyes, blurring her vision and staining her cheeks as they overflowed.

"After the final stages of the lesson, after having taken the lives of Tono Shun, Akiyama Mio and Nakano Azusa the weight of taking the lives of others became to great for her, and she insisted on following that brown-haired slug to hell." He shook his head in disgust. "And after all that time I thought I picked the perfect student to immortalize my lesson."

"No… Sh… Shun…" Ritsu coughed, the knowledge her friends, and especially boyfriend, were all dead creating a pain in her chest that far outweighed the pain from the holes drilled into her limbs. A shrill, painful cry finally clawed its way up her throat as she began to cry, saliva dripping from her lips and mucus from her nose as her sobbing continued.

"Now, now, let's not make such a dreadful face, my dear Ritsu," The man cooed, his smile returning, "There's good news to every sad tale in the end." He looked to the door with a sick smile growing wider on his face. "In the process of losing my top student, I easily found someone to replace her, someone who's psyche easily handled the loss of her friends and yearns to absorb more knowledge I am more than willing to supply for her." He knelt down, drying Ritsu's tears. She jumped at the simple contact, trying to wriggle away with no success.

"You see…all these little holes in your arms?" He asked her, worming one of his fingers into one of the bleeding injuries, causing Ritsu to scream in pain, which made him even happier, it seemed, as his finger lingered inside a short bit longer as he drank in her screams with great relish. "I'll have you know I'm not the one who put them there. My new student figured it would be fitting to eliminate the use of your arms and legs in the most efficient way possible. People who are simply bound to chairs have a chance of breaking free, she said, but people who simply no longer have the ability to move their arms and legs have no chance of even escaping this tiny room." He laughed heartily. "In losing a precious student, I surely found a priceless gem, no?"

"W… Who…?" Ritsu hiccupped, vision blurring from tears and from pain.

"Oh, yes, how rude of me." The man grinned, walking to the door. "I must introduce you to her…but I'm quite sure you've already been acquainted." He opened the door slowly, politely beckoning a person in from the darkness outside. Ritsu's eyes widened as the man's new student walked into the room, navy-blue school uniform died in blood and brown eyes staring blankly at her.

"Y…Yui!" Ritsu gasped. Yui looked back at her as if they were strangers, looking to her teacher.

"If I kill this thing, my pain will be eased, right?" She asked him in an almost robotic voice.

"Yes, my student. The greatest remedy for the pain you feel is to make others feel it as well. My former student could only grasp at it." Ritsu looked at the two of them in shock, small squeaks and moans escaping her lips as she listened to them talk. This girl wasn't Yui. The Yui she knew certainly wouldn't act this way!

"So, what do you plan to do?" The man asked Yui, who was now facing Ritsu with the same blank stare.

"There's no use in keeping her alive. Reports already assume she's either dead or apart of the crime." Yui explained. "It would be a waste to use your more perfected methods, sensei. A simple gun is all I need."

"YUI!" Ritsu cried. "YUI DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE ME? I'M YOUR FRIEND!"

"Friend?" Yui repeated, taking the weapon her teacher handed to her. She gently ran her hand along the barrel of the gun, her eyes darting back up to face Ritsu as she walked in an almost zombie-like manner over to her until they were less than an arms length apart. "My friends are dead."

"Yui…" Ritsu sobbed, gasping as she felt Yui press the cool mental of the gun against her head. "If it happened once it can happen again! I'll come back and I'll rescue you! I'LL RESCUE ALL OF YOU!"

_BLAM!_

Ritsu's body fell limp as Yui pulled the trigger, shooting the gun right through the center of her former friend's head without even a single flinch.

"Wonderful, my student! Magnificent as always." Her teacher applauded, walking to her side to review the dead body now lying before the both of them. "What is it you plan to do next?"

"Kevin Sensei…I'd like to see my sister…" Yui told him, looking at the gun still clutched in her hand. Kevin grinned, nodding in approval.

"Yes, it would be best to put your poor, worried sister's mind at ease-"

"But first." Yui said, lifting the gun and pointing it at him. "There's the matter of ridding the world of you."

"W… what?"

"Don't worry, sensei, I'll perfect your teachings in your absence." She smiled, eyes still completely blank. "But it's about time you retired your position to new staff."


	6. VI

Ritsu's eyes shot open, her ears filled with the sound of her phone ringing loudly. It echoed in her ears at first, like the noise was far away. All she could think of was what she'd just woke up from as her mind swam in all directions. Unlike before, when she had felt nauseous from waking up from something so awful, she didn't feel sick. Now all she could think of was the pain she felt, having her own friends die, again, despite everything she had done. The memory of her promise she'd made to Yui, and to everyone, before everything had ended passed through her mind

"I'll come back and I'll rescue you…" She muttered, as her vision grew as blurry and faded as her hearing as tears built up in her eyes and overflowed. "I'll rescue all of you…"

But something didn't seem right. The visions she had seen were gone, even when she tried to recall them they were only distant, blurred memories and not the clear and sharp images she'd seen flash behind her eyes before. Why couldn't she remember anything? All she could remember was her promise and the feeling of emptiness of losing all of her friends and that Yui, of all people, had taken her life. But beyond that, it was as if something was keeping her from remembering the specifics; something was keeping her from recalling what she had to do to save everyone this time around. Now, when she closed her eyes all she could see was darkness.

"Ritsu!" Ritsu's eyes shot open as someone sharply called her name and light flooded her darkened room from her open door. She groggily sat up to see Mio standing in her doorway, looking at her impatiently.

"Huh?" Ritsu mumbled, rubbing at her eyes. She'd long since stopped crying- now her eyes burned and underneath them felt heavy. How long had she been lying there trying to recall her memories?

"I've been calling you and calling you!" Mio sighed, walking into the room to throw open Ritsu's curtains and bathing the room in the morning light that stung Ritsu's eyes. "Don't you remember, Yui planned for us to get together. The way she kept on going on and on about a surprise she had I thought you'd be more eager to bother to get yourself up for a change."

"Sorry!" Ritsu moaned, stumbling out of bed and haphazardly throwing things from her closet and drawers for something to wear. "I…I must have overslept." She wanted to tell Mio that they were in danger and the words were on the tip of her tongue itching to spring fourth, but she bit her lip instead. How was she supposed to warn Mio about something she could hardly even remember herself?

"Well hurry up, everyone's waiting." Mio said as she turned to leave. "I'll wait outside for you."

"Wait, hold on, should I call Shun and see if he wants to come?" Ritsu asked. Mio paused, looking at Ritsu and raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"Shun? Who's Shun?"

* * *

It wasn't there. She'd checked her contact list several times, along with her call history, but Shun's number was long gone. Ritsu was sure she'd kept in contact with him before their third year began and then some, hadn't she? But no matter how deep she searched, she couldn't find a single shred of proof he even existed.

"Ritsu, could you put down your phone for three seconds, please?" Mio asked, annoyed. Ritsu stifled a groan as she snapped her phone closed and looked back up at her friends. The five of them had gathered at the local fast food restaurant, upon Yui's request. Ritsu couldn't fight back the feeling that everything she was seeing was new, but at the same time seemed so familiar. Let alone it was as if Shun had ceased to exist and no one seemed to notice.

"What's the matter, sempai?" Azusa asked as Ritsu pocketed her phone.

"She's probably still looking for proof of this pretend boyfriend she claims to have." Mio explained, rolling her eyes.

"Boyfriend?"

"Shut up," Ritsu shot. "He's real, don't you remember me telling you about him?" Everyone looked at her as if she'd spoken some form of gibberish and shook their heads.

"You haven't mentioned having a boyfriend," Mugi told her. The air grew uncomfortably silent as Ritsu angrily looked down at her untouched burger and fries. Why didn't anyone remember him?!

"Um…" Yui spoke up, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "Well… speaking of a boyfriend… I met someone a few days ago." Ritsu felt a shiver run up her spine as Yui's words repeated themselves over and over again in her head. Something in her mind was taking shape. She could hear distant noises that filled her with dread: screams, cries, and the sickening sounds of blood splattering to the ground. But, unlike before, she couldn't see anything; all she could see was darkness.

"Met someone?" Mio asked as everyone, save for Ritsu, leaned in curiously.

"I-It's not like we've done anything… we've only gone on one date, that's all." Yui stammered, her cheeks growing red. "It's nothing serious, I'm sure-"

"If you've been on a date already it's sure to be serious!" Mugi gasped, sounding excited about Yui's news. "What's his name!?" Everyone nodded in agreement.

"H…His name is Kevin, he's an exchange student at a college near here."

"A college student!" Azusa gasped in admiration. Ritsu felt her heart skip a beat as an image finally rushed passed her eyes. But it was strange and new and it didn't reveal to her what she needed to do. All she could see was a body falling through the air before crashing against the ground. She threw her hands over her mouth, feeling nauseous. All of her friends were so excited as they teased Yui about her new significant other along with the fact that, with the new development occupying her mind, she'd forgotten all about the set they had planned for their first live for arriving freshmen. But Ritsu couldn't hear a single word over her heart pounding in her ears as she saw flashes of the body.

"There's been a suicide!" She heard someone's voice echo in her mind. "Some foreign kid jumped off the school roof-" She felt herself jump as an ear-piercing scream assaulted her ears: a scream that could have belonged to no one but Yui.

"Ritsu, are you alright?" She gasped loudly as she felt Mio touch her shoulder once she realized how pale her friend had become. Ritsu could now feel she'd been quivering with her hands still thrown over her mouth, in fear she would give into the putrid feeling in her gut and vomit.

"He's going to die…" She mumbled.

"What!?" Ritsu felt the walls of the restaurant closing in on her as she began to panic. She could still see his blank, dead, blue eyes and hear the lingering echo of the scream. Her breathing grew short and sporadic as she pushed passed Mio to quickly and clumsily leave her seat as she ran for the door. These visions were unfamiliar and new, she could feel it. Once she made it outside, she only managed to stumble a few steps forward before loosing balance and leaning against the wall of the building.

"Ritsu!" Mio called, running after her. "What the hell was that back there? Are you feeling alright!?"

"He's going to die!" Ritsu cried. She didn't want to be alone in this, now that everything was new and she was running blind again. She wanted someone else to know what she was going through.

"Who's going to die!?"

"Kevin! He's going to throw himself off the school roof and die!" Ritsu explained shrilly as she turned to Mio just in time to have a hand make harsh contact with her face. She caught Mio glaring at her angrily as her face flew to the side, her cheek burning from the contact.

"This is a whole new low for you, Ritsu!" She snapped. "Just because Yui has someone special in her life doesn't mean you can act childish like this!"

"But, I'm not-"

"The whole pretend boyfriend thing is childish enough," Mio continued. "But you throwing some fit to get attention is a whole new low for you!"

"I'm telling the truth!" Ritsu cried. "It sounds crazy, but I can see what's going to happen, and Yui's new boyfriend is going to die!" Mio looked at her in shock, obviously lost for words. She palmed her face and shook her head, turning her back to Ritsu.

"Just come back when you stop acting so immature. I don't want you to ruin how happy Yui is now with your nonsense." Ritsu watched in defeat as Mio walked away and back inside the restaurant. She weakly fell to her knees, feeling warm tears grace her cheeks once again.

"Why won't she believe me?" She sobbed, burying her face in her hands. "Please…I don't want to face this on my own again…" But it was inevitable, she was alone. No one else could see what she saw, no one else got to see their friends die couldn't do anything about it. It filled her with dread in acknowledging it, but she knew there was nothing she could do to face trying to save her friends with anyone at her side.

* * *

It was still dark when Ritsu arrived at the school grounds. She had tried to sleep, but the vision of Kevin plummeting to his death continued to haunt her and each time it was revealed to her, the visions became clearer and clearer- to the point where she could see every drop of blood as his body splashed against the ground. She wrapped her arms around herself as she shuffled quickly to the school's entrance, her eyes wildly darting back and forth, hoping she had made it in time. The fact the visions were getting clearer and clearer meant the horrible event was close at hand, and each time the thought crossed her mind that she was too afraid to go on her own to try and stop him she was greeted with darkness, fearful cries and screams echoing from within. If she didn't stop Kevin, it would trigger more than Yui becoming miserable. There was something darker that awaited them.

"I'm going to save them this time," She chanted to herself as she approached the doors. She gingerly pushed against them to find someone had already unlocked them. A cold feeling ran up her spine as she bolted through the doors, not even caring if she made too much noise as she frantically ran for the stairs leading to the school roof.

"KEVIN!" She screamed, her voice echoing through the empty hallways of the school. "STOP! DON'T DO IT!" She frantically tripped up the steps, her panicked breaths between her shouts bouncing off the walls and surrounding her in sharp, quiet echoes. Once she reached the doors leading to the roof she pushed through them, barreling out of them and falling onto the ground.

"Kevin!" She gasped, looking up to see a tall figure standing at the edge of the roof and looking down at the ground below. It was him, she was sure of it. "STOP!" The figure went ridged, quickly turning to face her. It was Kevin, just as she had seen him in her visions. But now that he was in front of her, something about him seemed frightening and sinister, like she'd seen him somewhere before and he'd done something terrible, but she couldn't recall what.

"Please, you can't kill yourself!" She shouted, staggering to her feet. "Whatever happened you can't just throw your life away! Think of what it will do to Yui!" Kevin remained silent for a moment, seeming very surprised someone had found him. But then, a sick grin tugged at the edges of his lips as he lightly chuckled.

"You must be Ritsu- Yui told me all about you." He said, sounding a bit too calm to be someone who was about to throw himself off a building. In fact, he seemed almost excited. "She told me about all of you, and I must say you all sound absolutely perfect."

"Perfect? Perfect for what!?"

"For my lesson, of course. My final, greatest lesson," Ritsu's eyes widened as a vision flashed before her eyes. It wasn't something that was to come, she could feel that much. But she remembered someone who always talked about lessons- someone who had a sinister plan behind the things he "taught." He was the one who had been behind the events of the last world she'd been apart of. The memories from before, the ones that had been locked away inside her memory, flooded back. She lightly squeaked in fear as she threw her hands over her mouth, taking a frightened step backward.

"I see, you understand then," He laughed. "My death will trigger my star pupil to act and carry out my final lesson. You and your friends Yui was more than happy to tell me about will be perfect pieces to this subject lesson."

"Your pupil!?" Ritsu gasped. "You mean Mugi? Yui?" Her question was met with more laughter, like she'd just told him some sort joke.

"What sort of thought process brought you to that conclusion?" He asked with a sneer. "Mugi and Yui, along with your other friends Mio and Azusa are just expendable pawns. The reason I'm here, in Japan, is to teach my lessons to the one person I know will continue to spread my lessons to the world in my absence, and this final lesson will be his graduation from student to teacher."

"Who?!" Ritsu could feel herself shaking and, by the look on Kevin's face, she knew he could see her quivering, too.

"His name is Tono Shun," Kevin told her, taking a large step backward to the railing. "I needn't waste any more words on you, you'll all meet him soon." It felt as if the ground had disappeared from below Ritsu's feet and she was left to fall. He couldn't mean the Shun from before- the Shun she'd fallen in love with- could he? Her brain was filled with panicked questions, but all of them were silenced as Kevin took one last final step, sending him falling over the railing.

"NO!" Ritsu cried, charging forward with arms outstretched to try and snatch him back. But, by the time she'd reached the railing, he'd fallen out of her reach and all there was to do was watch in horror as Kevin fell to the ground, a sick smile on his face as he looked up at her as he plummeted to his death. She looked back at him with eyes and mouth wide open in shock and fear, her arm still stretched toward him as if she could still stop him. But it was too late, and as his body hit the ground with a sickening thud and blood burst from the back of his skull that met the concrete first.

A feeling of terror came over Ritsu. She couldn't stop him, and now, according to Kevin, she would be hunted and killed by the person she loved.

* * *

Ritsu hadn't come out of her room all day. After the horrific scene with Kevin, it was as if she couldn't think and before she knew it she found herself cowering under her covers. Kevin was dead, Shun was going to kill her, those were the only thoughts swimming violently in her skull. Aside from that, all that was left in her visions was darkness. Darkness and crying. Why couldn't she see any of it? She threw her hands over her ears and tried to shake away the frightening noises emitted by the darkness she saw.

"Ritsu! Ritsu are you in there!?" A voice calling her name brought her back from yet another one of the frightening, pitch-black visions. It was Mio, but she sounded panicked and she pounded on her door. "Ritsu!"

"I-I'm here," Ritsu squeaked, poking her head out from under her covers as Mio quickly entered and, just as quickly, shut the door behind her. She seemed frightened with her face pale as a sheet and her eyes wide in surprise.

"You… You said the other day Kevin was going to die, didn't you?" She asked, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper. "How did you know!? Tell me how you knew!"

"I already told you! I can see things that are going to happen before they truly happen," Ritsu explained, feeling a lump grow in her throat. "But you didn't believe me! You have no idea about the things I've seen!" Ritsu covered her face with her hands. "And even though I can see them, I can never stop them! I've already tried and failed you all once and now…" Mio looked down at Ritsu in shock.

"What do… you mean?"

"We're all going to die Mio. We're all going to die and there's nothing I can do to stop it!" Ritsu cried. She could hear Mio gasp over her sobs and, at first, she assumed it would be like the last time she tried to tell Mio the truth about her visions. She would refuse to believe her and she'd be alone to try and overthrow their seemingly inescapable fate.

"You have to at least try!" Ritsu looked up at Mio in surprise. "If you're really telling to truth you have to do something… _We_have to do something!"

"We?" For the first time in what seemed like forever, Ritsu felt a warm feeling grow in her chest. Something inside her finally felt there was something she could do now to save her friends.

"I'm not letting you go through this alone, and there's no way I'm trusting you with all our lives unless I'm right there to help you!" Mio told her, resting her hands on her shoulders. "I've seen Yui at her most miserable today, and to think you could have stopped that if I had just believed you is enough to drive me mad. I'm not going to let another bad thing happen; I'm going to help you!"

"Mio…" Ritsu felt the strange, alien feeling of a smile stretch across her lips.

"Now, tell me everything. I promise to believe you this time."

* * *

Mio breathed in deeply, trying to calm herself down as she pulled as the hem of the strange costume Sawako had made for her and the rest of the light music club to sing in. It wasn't that she was nervous about the performance, something else was lingering in her mind that trumped her stage fright. It was what Ritsu had told her that was bothering her, and it had been all she thought about ever since she'd agreed to help her suffering friend. Ritsu wasn't very clear on when it would happen, each day that passed she'd only tell her that she'd see darkness in her strange visions, but each day that passed she feared it would be the day her life would be at stake.

Her and Ritsu had agreed to tell no one else, seeing as they had other things to worry about. A very broken Yui had returned to school after Kevin's suicide and it had taken everything in their power to bring her back around. Their efforts had yet to be in vain, so it seemed a wise enough choice not to spring on anyone that Kevin had an ulterior motive in killing himself and sooner or later someone was going to come and try to kill them.

She took another deep breath, leaning against the wall backstage and slid to the ground. Everyone else was further upstage preparing for the performance. Her being shifty and nervous wouldn't help at all, so she had retreated to the back to calm herself down.

"Everything will be fine, Mio, just calm down," she whispered to herself between deep breaths. She rested her forehead on her knees, listening to the distant sound of her friends laughing and enjoying themselves as they set up. It almost seemed impossible anything bad would happen on the surface. Yui was recovering and the broken pieces were slowly sliding back into place and returning them back to their usual, normal routine. But each day that passed, Ritsu's visions had been growing louder and more frequent, although they were always clouded by darkness. Maybe that was a sign that the events were still far off.

Footsteps suddenly brought her out of her trance. She straightened up to see a boy about her age with black hair that hung in his face and concealed his eyes. He looked back at her through his bangs, emotionlessly and silently.

"Um…excuse me, but you're not supposed to be here." Mio told him, quickly standing to her feet. "The exit is-" The boys arm blurred across her vision before coming to rest back at his side. She only had a second to think and look down to see he had a knife that was now stained a deep red before the taste of blood filled her mouth and a spray of crimson blocked her vision.

* * *

A sudden blackout bathed the auditorium and backstage in darkness. Ritsu felt a feeling of panic consume her the moment the lights suddenly disappeared and the sounds of girls in the audience crying out echoed from behind the curtain. Everything was cloaked in darkness, just like her vision. All that was left were the cries and screams that had haunted her dreams.

A deep feeling of dread suddenly came over her as she wildly looked around the darkness. Mio had gone off farther backstage.

"Mio!?" Ritsu called. "Mio!?"

"I think she left to go calm down, she looked pretty nervous," Mugi explained. "She's probably somewhere around here." Her friend seemed calm, but then again she wasn't aware of what the darkness would bring with it.

"We need to find her!" She insisted. "You guys look for her, I'll find a flashlight!"

"But I'm sure she's fine-" Azusa began.

"Just do it! And don't split apart too far!" Ritsu barked, walking deeper into the darkness with her hands outstretched. She could feel her heart wildly pounding against her chest as her brain swam with thoughts of panic. She stumbled in the dark, finally finding a wall and a flashlight left against it for emergencies shortly after. All she had to do now was find her friends. She could hear Yui laughing about something, Mio being a scaredy-cat. A feeling of pure relief filled her as she quickly walked through the darkness until the voices were close.

"I found a flashlight!" She announced.

"Good, we found Mio," Azusa responded from somewhere in the darkness.

"Poor thing's so scared she can hardly speak," Mugi chuckled lightly. "It's alright, Mio, Ritsu has a flashlight now."

"Yeah, no need to be afraid now, Ritsu's come to save the-" Ritsu joked as she flipped the switch on the flashlight, bathing the area around them in a dim, yellow glow. But once the light frightened away the darkness, it made way for a whole knew form of fear. Mio, who had once been thought to be simply too afraid to speak, was motionless. Her eyes were wide in fear, but were empty. Her light blue costume was now died a deep red and a deep gash was prominent across her neck. And above her body, scrawled in blood, were the words "It's all your fault". Yui cried in terror as she leaped off Mio's body, scooting away in fear as she tried to rub off the blood that had soaked onto her own clothes.

"No… No, this… This can't be-" Ritsu stuttered as she backed up. The one person who knew about her troubles and the only person she had that would help her was gone. And now she was alone in her feeble quest to save her friends.

"Oh… Oh god!" Mugi gasped, turning away.

"HELP!" Azusa cried harshly. "SOMEBODY HELP!" Her voice echoed through the auditorium but no one answered back. All there was was quiet and the ominous sound of footsteps of someone who didn't care if their presence was known. They seemed to come from all around, and in the darkness, it was impossible to tell if someone was there. Ritsu wildly spun in circles shinning her flashlight wherever she thought she heard the footsteps, but each time no one seemed to be there.

"Is anyone there!?" She called into the darkness, even though she was afraid if someone where to answer back.

"We have to get out of here!" Azusa shouted shrilly, running into the darkness.

"No, Azusa, wait!" Ritsu gasped as Azusa pushed passed the curtains and ran into the main auditorium. Ritsu wanted to pursue her, but she dared not venture into the dark and leave Mugi and Yui alone. "Azusa, come back here!" There was silence for a moment as Ritsu's call echoed around them before a blood-curdling scream tore through the eerie silence.

"AZUSA!" Ritsu's mind went blank at that point as she left her post beside Yui and Mugi, leaving the two of them to cower in the dark as she ran onstage. "AZUSA, ANSWER ME!" She ventured further into the darkness of the auditorium as she leaped off the stage and into the isle. She couldn't here anything that assured her that Azusa was all right, just the sound of her own frantic footsteps.

_Splash._

Her foot came into contact with something warm and wet that splashed up from the floor and splattered against her leg. In surprise she jumped back and shown her flashlight where she had just stepped. The isle was soaked in red and the crimson puddle slowly oozed towards her. She slowly lifted the flashlight, illuminating the source of the spill. There was Azusa, her body lying limply in the slowly growing puddle, her head dismembered and peering out at her from where it lay.

It was Ritsu's turn to scream as she dropped the flashlight into the puddle of blood that was starting to flow around her feet. Frantically she stumbled in the dim light the flashlight cast from the floor to the auditorium doors. She jerked at the handles but neither door budged.

"No!" She cried, pulling at the doors again and again, each time she was met with the same result. "No, no, no, no, NO!"

"RITSU!" A second cry came from behind her, where she had left Yui and Mugi. She sharply gasped, whirling around the face the darkness where the scream had come from.

"Shit!" She hissed, running to the stage on unsteady legs. She pushed through the curtains, coming face to face with darkness. She could hear frightened whimpering, but in her panic she couldn't pinpoint where the noise was coming from.

"Please…stop this!" She said through quivering lips. "Please... Shun!" A faint light suddenly flickered in the darkness as she muttered his name. There he was, the face of the boy she had loved. He looked back at her coldly through the hair that hung in his face, one hand holding a lighter aloft, the other holding a knife to Yui's throat. And, in the dim glow of the flame she could see Mugi's body at his feet, her face bashed in, blood and bits of brain oozing from every orifice on her face.

"How do you know my name?" He asked, applying slight pressure to Yui's neck as she tried to squirm away.

"I…" Ritsu bit back her words. "You wouldn't understand! But I know you're a good person, I know a part of you doesn't want to do this!" Shun was silent for a moment, his concealed eyes fixed on her.

"You don't know anything about me," He muttered coldly. "The only one who knew anything about me was my friend and sensei, and now he's dead because of her-"

"THAT'S A LIE!" Ritsu shouted. "He's just using you for his sick little lessons! Can't you see!?"

"I've had enough of your bullshit!" Shun spat. "The only lesson here will be the one I'll teach you!" Right before her eyes she watched as Shun effortlessly dug the blade into the soft flesh of Yui's throat. Blood spurted in all directions, small red arcs becoming thicker as he dug the knife deeper into her throat. Yui didn't even have a chance to scream, all that came from her lips was a painful last gasp for breath as Shun cut into her. Her eyes looked at Ritsu, full of fear, as if to beg Ritsu to save her, before becoming empty and void.

It was only when Shun carelessly dropped her limp body to the ground that Ritsu finally screamed. Everyone was dead. Again, she didn't have the strength to save a single one of them. Clutching at the sides of her head as she cried, she stumbled backward.

'So, this is what madness feels like…?' She thought in the final sound parts of her brain. A quick click brought her from her screams, shutting them up all together as she looked to Shun with tear-filled, bloodshot eyes. He'd discarded the knife and now held a gun, pointing the barrel at her.

"I do love watching people lose their minds in despair, but eventually it gets old after a while," He muttered, a ghost of a maniacal smile pulling at the edges of his mouth. "I think it's about time I put you out of your misery."

Ritsu heard the gunshot and immediately she tasted blood as it exited her lips, but she was already too far gone to feel the pain blooming in her chest as she stumbled forward and clutched at Shun's shirt with bloodstained hands as her feet began to give out from beneath her.

"I…I love…" She coughed, her sentence remaining unfinished as her body grew cold and her vision blurring before dissolving into darkness.

_"I couldn't save them. I'll never be able to save them…."_


	7. VII

"This is unacceptable. You've said you finished the job and yet the girl still continues to travel between worlds. I'm tired of giving you second chances, if you don't stop her this time, you'll pay dearly, do you understand? The after-effects could be catastrophic if she overcomes her fate, so I suggest you make damn sure she doesn't get another chance this time."

* * *

Ritsu cowered underneath her covers, her hands pressed tightly against her ears as she tried to drown out the loud ringing of her phone. Again, she'd witnessed all her friends die before her eyes, and again she found herself awake and alive. But this time, when she opened her eyes after she was sure they'd be closed for an eternity, she wasn't greeted with fuzzy, far off memories. This time every memory assaulted her brain in high definition. She could clearly hear each scream and see each crimson spray of blood. She'd seen her friends, and herself, die time after time, and now she didn't have the luxury of the memory of each incident being locked away.

And now she had returned, but for what? To see all of her friends die again? She refused to watch everything dissolve before her eyes again; she couldn't stand the thought of living the same life over and over. She no longer had the will to fight or save her friends; she'd seen what good that had done her. She wanted to escape, but despite her longing she had returned.

What fate lurked outside her bedroom walls terrified her. She was paralyzed with fear over having to leave the safety of her room if she were to be greeted with the same, gruesome ending again. Fear was what locked her in her room from the moment she woke up. Not the pleading of her parents or the coaxing of her friends would drive her from the room. She didn't want to die, not again!

"Please, stop," she whispered sharply as her phone continued to go unanswered as it rang. "Don't make me go through the same thing again…"

She didn't know how long she'd been in seclusion. Days, weeks, months? It didn't matter, she was safe there. Nothing inside of her room could harm her. Everything outside, however, had the potential. Even leaving her room for a moment filled her with dread.

"Please…don't…"

"Ritsu!" Ritsu couldn't help but cry out as someone called her name, their fist banging against her door.

"GO AWAY!" She screamed, still buried beneath her sheets. She knew exactly who was behind her door, it was the same person who came by every day to call her name and pound on her door, their voice ranging from demanding to pleading with each visit. She didn't want to see her- she didn't want to see any of them if they were going to vanish before her eyes yet again.

"That girl…" She heard her mother softly say. "She hasn't come out of there for days, any amount of force hasn't done any good…"

"Ritsu, please! You need to come out!" Mio shouted. Each word assaulted Ritsu's eardrums as if she'd shouted them loudly into her ear. Even hearing her friends voice made her heart ache, knowing that voice would be choked off soon. "Please, everyone's worried!"

"I SAID GO AWAY!" Ritsu shouted back.

"Ritsu…" A new voice resonated from the other side of the door. A soft, warm voice that definitely didn't belong to Mio. "Mio's telling the truth, whatever is wrong you need to tell us. We're friends…friends tell each other what's wrong, right?"

"Yui…" A lump grew in Ritsu's throat. Now she could hear everyone behind the door, sharing soft, hardly audible whispers with one another amongst Yui's words. Everyone was there- everyone she couldn't bare to see. Hearing them again- the voices that would soon be stolen away from her no matter what she did- it was enough to drive her mad. But at the same time it wore down her resolve. She wanted to see them as much as she wanted to lock them out. All she could ever think about were their faces and their cries before their lives were stripped away. It would hurt her, she knew, but she wanted to see their smiling faces and hear their happy voices- anything to drown out the constant replay of blood and screams flashing behind her eyes.

Which was why she found herself standing at her door, her hand clutching her doorknob in a white knuckled grip as she bounced back and forth between letting her friends in and keeping them locked out. Not just possibly letting them into her room, but into her problems. Having someone on the outside help her had proved futile before, would it make a difference this time?

"Ritsu?" Yui's voice said from the other side of the door.

"Help me…" Ritsu finally managed to rasp, and once she'd spoken those words there was no turning back. Her defenses to keep herself from having everything crumble around her quickly crumbled itself as she unlocked her door and slowly opened it just a crack. She peered out into the light of the hallway as a sliver of light fell across the floorboards of her room. Just as she thought, the entire light music club was at her door, looking back at her with smiles that almost seemed to pity her as she looked back at them with desperation. Opening her door further, inch-by-inch, she repeated, "Please… Help me."

* * *

"This… You aren't just playing some kind of trick, are you?" Mio gasped. All four of her friends had gathered on her bed as Ritsu wove the tail of her troubles. The looks of horror Ritsu got the entire time almost made her want to stop, humor Mio and tell her yes, she was joking. But instead, she shook her head.

"I'm not, I really wish I was, though," She sighed. "And no matter what I do, I can never escape. I… I…" A large lump grew in her throat again as she fought back tears. But just as she felt herself begin to spiral downward a comforting touch on her shoulder pulled her out of her misery. She looked up to see Mugi, smiling at her despite the terrifying stories.

"Whatever happened then is in the past," Mugi told her softly. "This is now, and this time we'll all stand together to help you-"

"To help all of us," Azusa cut in.

"You don't have to face this alone, we're going to help you beat this," Yui shook her head in agreement, looking determined.

"This is crazy," Mio added, her voice low and her eyes looking unsure. "Something like this happening… It doesn't seem possible." Her eyes that had been darting to and fro met Ritsu's, who stared back at her with a look that begged to he helped. "…But… I hate to see you like this Ritsu, all pathetic and sad. If believing this madness will bring you back to normal I… We will help you, no matter what it is."

"We're a band, and band members have to stick together." Azusa added. A warm feeling grew in Ritsu's chest as the unfamiliar feeling of a smile tugged at her lips. For the first time in ages, as she looked back at all of her friends, she didn't see their terrifying fates. She didn't see madness or tears, pain or suffering. The paralyzing visions that seemed to replay in her head again and again seemed to dry up and burn away, fleeing from the warm smiles of her friends.

"Thank you, and you're right" She found herself saying as she smiled, wiping away tears with the back of her hand. "If we stick together… maybe we -no- we _will_ have a future to look forward to."

* * *

Ritsu could feel the slight onset of panic as she climbed the stairs to her homeroom. The school board had made the decision to integrate male students into the school, and now each time she saw one of them in the corner of her eye, all she could see was Shun. Her mind swimming with questions and concerns, she made her way into her homeroom. She stopped in the doorway, eyes scanning the room for anyone she could recognize. Even from the perspective the girl who expected pandemonium to break out the moment she walked into the school, everything seemed normal.

Then, her gaze came to rest on a girl sitting in the back of the classroom, her focus on a book instead of the people around her. Brown hair, brown eyes- there was no denying it, Ritsu knew exactly who she was. And whether or not she was the piece to the soon to be disastrous puzzle, there was no way she was just going to overlook her existence. Her death had been the final push that dragged Mugi into madness before, something told her there was no doubt her being there wasn't just something she could simply look over.

"Good morning!" Ritsu greeted her, forcing a smile as she took the empty desk next to her. The girl looked up from her book for a split second and sent a cold stare Ritsu's way that sent a shiver up her spine. Ritsu jumped, her smile quickly fading as she whirled around to the front of the class. Maybe she'd gotten the wrong person. The last time she'd spoken to her, she didn't come across as someone who would be so cold.

Just as Ritsu was about to steal another look at the girl a familiar voice made it's way into her ears, and it made her skin crawl. Going over every single, possible reason why it wouldn't be who she thought it was she looked to the front of the class, her eyes unwilling to travel at more than a snails pace.

"Alright, everyone, settle down and take your seats." Panic filling every inch of her thoughts, Ritsu found herself staring down the one person she feared the most: Kevin, the one person who had haunted her no matter where she ran. There was no doubt in her mind it was him, and she half expected him to add on the terrifying "lesson" tagline as he set piles of papers he had in his arms clumsily onto the front desk.

Driven by fear, Ritsu gasped sharply as she quickly pushed back, her chair clattering to the ground behind her as she propelled herself to her feet to face her foe. Everyone in the classroom fell silent and turned in their seats to see what the commotion was. And, for a moment, her eyes and his eyes met, and for a split second she was so sure his lips would quickly draw themselves up into a cruel smile. But instead, he look back at her with the same look everyone else in the class gave her: confusion.

"Miss…" He paused, looking down at one of the papers that sat on top of mountains of others. "…Tainaka, is everything the matter?" Ritsu opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't seem to fathom a single syllable. On the surface, he seemed to be normal, but after having seen him create cruel plots time and again she couldn't help but force herself to see something underlying and sinister about him.

"It was just a cockroach, Kevin-sensei," The brown-haired girl spoke. Her voice was monotonous and bored sounding, but as she turned to Ritsu, it seemed to pick up a fearsome sharpness as she said, "Right, Tainaka?"

"… Right…" Ritsu finally spoke, nodding as she looked between the two familiar characters. On one hand, the Kevin she knew from the past seemed to have done a 180, and now seemed to have a clumsy and shy air about him like any other new teacher. And the brown haired girl who before seemed kind now had an edge to her. She could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice, and sitting back down she could feel her gaze follow her every move and silently criticized each one. Now she was far from being able to tell who was and wasn't the monster that would shred this new reality with it's claws.

* * *

Class was altogether suffocating, having someone at the front of the classroom who had formally been characterized as a madman time and again being the main contributor of that. By the time lunch began she couldn't even bare to spare a thought about eating or visiting her friends. By now, a strong, nervous feeling of claustrophobia had taken a firm and powerful grip on her brain, and all she wanted was a wide open space where it would be just her and her jumbled, jostled thoughts.

The school roof seemed to fit the criteria, albeit it was against the rules to be there. It wasn't like anyone patrolled the stairwell to the roof, and the lock was frighteningly pickable. Her going unbothered seemed positive as she leaned exhaustedly over the guardrail and stared down at the ground below.

She was certain she'd never seen this sort of scene unfold in front of her, which only frightened her even more. Visions that usually would give her cryptic -but in the long run helpful- hints were nonexistent and the only noise buzzing in her brain were her own multitude of questions. She had all her friends behind her this time, and she was down to her very last shred of sanity; it was certainly an inopportune time for a blind run. She took a breath of the fresh spring air, trying to clear her mind.

"Excuse me!" Ritsu snapped up straight, an eerily familiar voice invading the silence she'd been trying to lose herself in. She spun around, her movements painfully stiff as she turned to face the last person she wanted to be in the presence of.

"Oh, K-Kevin-sensei," she gasped, using every bit of her strength to put on an innocent smile instead of a frightened frown. "I-I-"

"I may be new here, but I'm pretty sure the roof is off limits to students," Kevin told her.

"I-I'm sorry, I-" Ritsu babbled. The fact he was walking toward her wasn't making her ability to form a proper sentence any easier.

"I guess the first few days of school can be pretty stressful- you're a third year after all. I'm sure you have plenty of things on your mind," Kevin said with an understanding smile that threw Ritsu off completely. "I won't tell anyone, just don't make a habit out of it, alright?" For the first time that day, Ritsu felt herself calming down just a bit. He may have been a villain before, but so far he'd hardly shown any signs of having some sort of dark, ulterior motive.

"Thank you," she sighed, unable to mask the heaping amounts of relief in her words as her body loosened and her painful posture devolved back into a tired slouch.

"Besides, you might as well enjoy yourself now," Kevin continued, stopping once he was beside her. And even though his voice remained uncharacteristically kind, the next words that came out of his mouth may as well have been hissed out like a snake. "It's only a matter of time before you'll be eliminated from this world completely."

"E-Excuse me!?" She jumped, praying she had simply misheard him.

"Did I stutter?" Kevin asked, the kind tone in his voice quickly dropping. "This will be the last time you see this world, or any other world. I'm here to personally make sure your efforts will be drawn to a close." It felt as if the floor had disappeared right from under Ritsu's feet as the feeling of free-falling welled up in her chest.

"I…I have no idea what you're-"

"Don't play dumb, you and I both know very well we've seen each other many times," He snapped coldly, grabbing her arm tightly the moment she attempted to run away. "I chose to overlook your failed attempts to beat fate many times, but now I'm here to correct my mistakes."

"W…what are you talking about!?" Ritsu gasped as her body shook in fear. She tried to free herself from his grasp, but her efforts were futile.

"I'm an heir bringer of death, Ritsu: A shinigami. It's my duty to reap the souls of people who's time has run out, but thanks to a little slip up a soul I was supposed to reap was left to live, and in her regret, she created alternate worlds where she tried time and again to save her friends." Kevin explained, a cruel smirk on his face.

"The human ability is quite the amazing and unfortunate thing, I've come to find. It's that underlying ability that caused my scythe to falter in his duty and caused you to create alternate realities so you could escape the way things ended up the first time."

"Your…scythe?" Ritsu had always imagined scythes as being simply sickles, but hadn't he just referred to it as if it were a person?

"Shinigami have a wide range of options to chose from when picking out their scythe. Most of them just chose intimate objects that get the job done but are painfully boring. I chose a human as my scythe, and believe me, I thought I'd made the right decision; I carried out my job and got to observe the complex human psyche all at once. But then my weapon, that had carried out each of his duties with nothing but success, fell in love and couldn't kill a girl who was meant to die." Ritsu's eyes widened in surprise. "I take it by your expression you know exactly who I'm talking about. Tono Shun is my scythe, or at least was. He failed me, and I'll have no use for him once I get rid of your existence for good.

"And believe me, I have my eyes set on a few very promising pieces once his usefulness to me has ended. Your friends Mugi and Yui became perfect little 'students' of mine, if you recall. Once my job here is done I may be able to pull a few strings and use whatever scraps are left of their souls to do my bidding elsewhere." Ritsu's mouth opened and closed like a fish as she squeaked and gasped in shock, unable to form a single word that could express what she was feeling. A violent storm of confusion, fright, anger and sadness brewed in her mind, and it left her with hardly any words.

"Why…" She asked, her voice cracking. "Why are you telling me these things!?"

"Because, my dear Ritsu," Kevin chuckled deviously, "I know for a fact you won't be able to do a thing to stop me. You and your friends will all die and this time you won't wake up safe and sound in your bed again. At best, your sin to try and defy that which shouldn't be tampered with will have you floating about purgatory for an eternity." Tears welled up in Ritsu's eyes as a scream began to build in her lungs, just itching to be set free.

"Hey, what exactly's going on here!?" A voice shouted. Kevin begrudgingly let go of Ritsu's arm as they both looked over to the source of the shout- Kevin with annoyance and Ritsu with relief. It was the brown-haired girl, looking at the scene that was in front of her with a questionable look.

"Students aren't allowed to be on the school roof," Kevin explained, a harshness very apparent in his voice. "I was simply…teaching Miss Tainaka here a lesson so she'll never do it again."

"And I'm sure sexual harassment is not frowned upon at all, either," The girl retorted, looking just as un-amused as Kevin. Without another word Kevin grunted in annoyance, hands in his pockets as he walked towards the stairwell. And as he passed the girl the two of them shared a look that was brimming with distrust and disgust from both sides. Whatever was between the two of them, it went past them simply being annoyed with the other.

"Thank you," Ritsu sighed as she, too, began to head back into the school.

"I didn't do it for you," The girl told her coldly, her eyes seeming to be focused more on the path Kevin had taken during his leave more that Ritsu, her eyes aglow with an angry glare. "It's off limits for anyone to be on the school roof unless they have a legitimate reason. Students have no reason to be up here at all, and coming up here to harass students surely isn't a good enough reason to be up here, either. I was simply enforcing the rules." With that, she turned her gaze away from Ritsu completely, as if she wasn't even there, and walked down the stairwell ahead of Ritsu, not before throwing her one last icy look.

Ritsu gulped, standing at the edge of the stairs, looking down at the staircase as if it were an abyss that was going to swallow her whole. The cruel turning point of the new world she'd landed in had been revealed, and it made her shiver. Pessimism invading her thoughts, all seemed utterly hopeless. But she dug her nails into the palms of her hands and she tightly balled them into fists. With greater fear came greater determination. Just because things looked grim didn't mean things were impossible in her favor. After all, as Kevin had said, the human ability was an amazing thing.

* * *

"Now this just sounds ridiculous!" Mio exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table. "A Shinigami teaching here? This is all starting to sound more and more far fetched!"

"I'm telling the truth, though!" Ritsu shouted back, her own frustrations rising from Mio's distrust. "I know it sounds like some sort of joke, but I swear I'm telling the truth! Please…you…you have to believe me!"

"Mio, if Ritsu was pulling a prank, don't you think she would have dropped the act by now?" Yui asked, looking back at Mio who was looking at the lot of them in disbelief.

"But…these things just don't happen!" Mio cried, her voice growing shrill. It was obvious she was scared, it was evident in her eyes that were wide in terror and the way her body shivered as she spoke.

"Maybe not to you, but they happen to me, and they have been all this time!" Ritsu snapped. Having one of her friends deny and deny what she'd suffered through as being true made her feel as if she was drowning, and the fact Mio was the one she wanted to believe her the most only shoved her head deeper beneath the waves of her panic.

"Mio-sempai, this goes beyond Ritsu's usual pranks!" Azusa chimed in. "You're scared? So are all the rest of us, but if we stand together, we might just be able to stop all of this from happening!" Mio turned her back to them, eyes tightly closed with her hands pressed against her ears as she shook her head. Ritsu's panic transformed hideously into rage as she pushed her chair out of her way and walked over to Mio.

"This isn't something you can ignore, Mio!" She snapped. "If you try and just pretend it doesn't exist, you might as well just lie down and wait to die, because that's what will happen! You'll die!"

"Shut up! You're lying, you're all lying!" Mio shrieked, her hands still over her ears. Ritsu's lips twisted into a snarl as she tightly grasped her friends shoulder and forced her around. Then with all her might she grasped her other shoulder and slammed Mio against the wall. Mio cried out in fright as Ritsu gripped her shoulders tightly. She stared into her friend's eyes that refused to meet hers angrily.

"Ritsu!" Mugi gasped as the remaining three of them rose from their seats.

"I'm not lying!" Ritsu shouted, pulling Mio away from the wall only to shove her into it again. "I would never lie about something like this! How dare you think I would lie about something like this!" Tears of frustration began to cloud her vision while ones of fear were already running down Mio's cheeks.

"Ritsu, stop!" Yui gasped, trying to pull Ritsu off of Mio only to be pushed away.

"You…You believed me before!" Ritsu cried, the harshness in her voice and in her grip on Mio's shoulders beginning to erode the closer her tears came to spilling over. "Why don't you believe me now!? What will it take to make you believe me!? What will it take for you to help me!"

"I want proof!" Mio wept, trying to struggle free. "I want proof this isn't another one of your stupid lies!"

Just then the doors of the light music club flew open as someone stumbled in, their frantic breathing cutting the argument short. Everyone looked to see who had burst in to find the brown haired girl trying to regain her balance. Her eyes were wide and frantic as she looked up at the five of them desperately.

"Alexis!" Mugi gasped, running to her side. "What are you doing here!?"

"You know her?" Ritsu asked, releasing Mio with one hand to wipe away her tears.

"She-" Mugi cut herself off mid-thought as she helped Alexis back to her feet, almost as if she was trying to rethink what she had originally wanted to say. "We met during summer classes, I guess you should say she's one of my close friends outside this club." She gave Alexis a quick smile, but Ritsu was able to read it easily. She'd seen Mugi give the same girl that same smile before. She knew the exact words Mugi had hidden beneath the ones she had spoken.

"You have to help me!" Alexis gasped, looking over her shoulder. "I was followed here by… He…he-"

As Mugi tried to comfort her friend, Mio tore herself away from Ritsu's grip, throwing her an ugly look as she put as much distance between them as the room would allow.

"It's all right, Alexis," Mugi told her softly. "Come take a seat, I'll make you some tea-"

"No, you don't understand! He-"Alexis looked over her shoulder and gasped. Everyone else did the same to see a boy standing in the doorway. Ritsu threw her hands over her mouth in shock, muffling her own gasp. It was Shun, staring at the six of them with cold, unfeeling, empty eyes.

"W-Who are you?" Yui asked, stepping forward. Before she took a second step, Shun raised his hand revealing the gun he'd been holding. Yui, along with everyone else, cried out in fear as they ran to the back of the clubroom in a sad attempt to escape him.

"Shun…" Ritsu muttered.

"You know him!?" Mio asked in a hushed tone as she –despite the earlier scene between the two of them- gripped Ritsu's arm in fright.

"In some worlds he was a very special person to me…" Ritsu explained, sadness mixing with her fear. "But now he's just a tool of Kevin's…" She looked to Mio, the two of them sharing a knowing glance. Maybe it was the fear of death that brought it on, but the look in her eyes was a dead give away Mio trusted her now.

"Shut up, all of you," Shun hissed. "Unless the five of you want to die here, I suggest you do as I say."

"Five of us… But what about-" Azusa began, only to be cut off by an ear-shattering bang of a shot being fired. Everyone shrieked, each one of them suspecting it was them that had been the bullet's target.

"Yes, five," Shun mumbled just as Alexis, who had been huddled against Mugi, fell against the wall limply and crumpled to the ground leaving a trail of blood down the wall from the bullet wound that had driven a hole clean through her head. "That one isn't meant to be here."

"Alexis!" Mugi shrieked, falling to her knees and tightly pressing her close friends lifeless corpse against her as she gathered her into a desperate embrace. "No!"

"Unless you want to be next, I suggest you follow me," Shun growled above the individual panicked cries and screams of the remaining five girls. Ritsu knelt down beside Mugi, placing her hand on her shoulder. Her mourning friend's head snapped up, looking to her with wide eyes and a tears stained face.

"Mugi…we need to do as he says-" Ritsu muttered, trying to fight back the feeling of nausea as her eyes swept over Alexis' body.

"No! Let him kill me! I don't care!" Mugi practically screamed. "She was… she was-"

"I know," Ritsu told her softly. "But please, I can't stand the thought of seeing another one of my friends die…" Mugi turned away, looking at the dead, but wide-open eyes of her fallen lover. "Mugi!"

"I loved her…even if it was for a short time. I loved her," Mugi sobbed, her shoulders visibly shaking before stopping all together. "But…I knew her well enough to know…She'd hate me if I threw my life away." She placed her hands over Alexis' eyes, closing them.

"…Mugi…"

"Are we done chatting?" Shun's cruel voice asked. He was now standing over the both of them as the others shuffled away in fright. "My master is growing impatient." Ritsu met his eyes before quickly turning away. It hurt to see him like this: just an empty shell of the boy she used to know. She got up, keeping her eyes focused elsewhere as she helped a wobbly Mugi to her feet.

"Good, now…if you would all please follow me," Shun hissed, turning to the door. The five girls looked between each other frantically.

"Don't worry," Ritsu's voice was surprisingly calm as she stared at Shun's back. "No one else is going to die…not this time." She felt her heart race as she took the first step in following after Shun. "I just need you all to trust me." The four behind her were silent for what seemed like an eternity.

"We trust you," The sound of Mio practically whispering the words she wanted to hear were enough to make her smile, even then. She was no longer begrudgingly going along with the scenario, she truly trusted Ritsu that this was real and that they could do something to stop it from happening. And if Mio, of all people, trusted her it was no mystery the others would as well.

"Hey, hurry up!" Shun practically barked. Ritsu shared one last look with her friends before she turned and followed him, the sounds of her friend's footfalls resonating behind her. Her mind was filled with fear- fear that her quickly put together plan would fail, that this would be her last chance to save herself but more so her friends, that the fact she finally got her friends to trust her would go to utter waste. But behind the fear was a burning determination. If she had the power within her to create different worlds, then she'd channel every last bit of that power to stop this madness once and for all.

The five of them followed Shun in silence all the way to the auditorium. The spacious room was empty save for a single person standing on the stage, welcoming them all with a slow clap that echoed through the empty room.

"It looks like you chose not to put up a fight, very wise," Kevin chuckled as he mockingly applauded. "And what about that other little rat?"

"She won't interfere," Shun told him as he led the girls onto the stage.

"Excellent," Kevin grinned, looking the five girls over with cruel interest- Ritsu especially, who met his gaze and refused to look away.

"I'm sure little Ritsu has woven her sad little tales to you by now," he chuckled. "And even though it was my duty to put her jumping from world to world to an end, I've been a passive player in all of this. That's all going to change now, and this time I'm going to make sure none of you return to this world." He gave Shun a quick nod, who pointed the barrel of the gun at Ritsu. "Starting with the problem's main cause." Ritsu stared down Shun as the sound of her friends gasping filled her ears.

"Any last words, Miss Tainaka?" Kevin asked her cruelly. "I'd be sure to make them profound, they'll be the last words you'll ever get to speak."

"You don't want to do this, Shun!" Ritsu shouted, as if he was much farther than an arms length away from her. "I know you're in there somewhere- I know you're not just an empty shell that does this madman's bidding!"

"Quite the stupid string of parting words. He can only hear what I want him to hear and do what I want him to do. His actions aren't yours to control anymore."

"You've done it before, you know?" Ritsu continued, ignoring Kevin's icy words. "I know you have your own feelings, your own will! You managed to do it once before… You… You fell in love, didn't you!?"

"Shut up!" Kevin snapped. "Shun, silence this stupid girl already!"

"No!" Ritsu cried. "I know the you I knew before is somewhere in there, Shun! You have the power to stop this, you just have to remember! Please!"

"Shun, kill her!"

"I LOVE YOU!" Ritsu squeezed her eyes shut as a loud bang rang through the air.

'This is it', she thought, 'I failed…'

"Ugh!" Ritsu's eyes shot open as a pained gasp broke through the silence. Shun had turned around the face his master, and so had the direction of his shot. Eyes wide with rage and pain, Kevin grasped his chest as blood began to freely flow from the bullet wound, dying the surrounding cloth of his shirt a deep red.

"So…this is how it is, then?" Kevin coughed as blood flew from his lips with every word. "It seems…you humans are more of an enigma… Than I… thought." His final words was more like a whisper as he fell backward off the stage, his body falling to the ground below with a sickening thud. The air was filled with a painful silence before distant shouts from outside penetrated it.

"I think I heard something in here! Quick, before any more students are hurt!"

Ritsu stood statue-still, her mouth hanging open in amazement. She half expected it all to be a dream. The fact she had actually done it seemed so surreal she didn't want to believe it at first.

"Shun…" She finally spoke, her lips drawn up in a smile as he turned to face her. "Shun, you-" She gasped, stepping backward as he lifted his gun a second time.

"Ritsu…" He muttered, his head hung low. "I'm sorry."

A second gunshot rang through the air, followed by a scream.

* * *

Ritsu found herself back on the roof, her body limply hanging over the guardrail as the setting sun dyed the sky above her vivid reds and oranges. In the end, Shun had turned the gun on himself and ended his own life along with his master's. She wanted to feel happy- she had saved her friends, she had defeated fate. But his passing put a damper on her would-have-been celebration and all throughout the seemingly endless string of questioning from the police all the could think about was him.

"Ritsu!" She looked over her shoulder as she heard Mio call her name. "Something told me I'd find you here. The police are done questioning us, so we can go home now."

"Right…" Ritsu muttered leaning back over the railing. She heard Mio audibly sigh over the wind that whistled past them as she walked over to her, leaning over the railing as well as she placed one hand on her friend's back.

"I'm sorry you couldn't save him," she said softly. "But even though he didn't make it, look, all of us made it out in one piece all because of you. And now, thanks to you, we have a lifetime to make everything better again."

"I guess you're right, for once," Ritsu smiled, wiping away stray tears with her sleeve as she raised her head to look at the beautiful colors the sunset had put on display. "Thanks."

"What are friends for?" Mio smiled back as the two of them shared a comfortable silence as they watched the sun sink below the rooftops.

"Hey, could you tell the others I'll come with them in a minute?" Ritsu asked. "I want to spend a little more time alone and let all of this sink in." Mio gave Ritsu an understanding smile as she nodded, backing away from the guardrail.

"Alright, we'll meet you by the front gate!" She called as she ran back to the doors leading to the stairwell. Ritsu sighed happily, the smile on her face remaining.

"I guess she's right," she told herself. "I've earned myself an entire lifetime."

"Have you now?" A sly voice behind her asked. In surprise, Ritsu whirled around and sharply gasped. Before her stood Alexis, a sinister look in her eyes and a smirk on her lips.

"W-What!?" Ritsu practically screamed. "You…You're dead! Shun shot you! You-"

"Silly Ritsu," Alexis shook her head. "It's physically impossible for a shinigami to die." Ritsu felt a cold shiver run up her spine. She wanted to run for the doors, but as soon as she made a single movement Alexis pulled a pistol seemingly out of thin air, and with blinding speed she came face to face with her, the barrel of her weapon pressed against Ritsu's forehead.

"You…you can't-" Ritsu gasped.

"On the contrary, Ritsu, I can and I have to," Alexis snarled, "Humans aren't meant to be able to defeat fate. It's never happened before and it's all thanks to Kevin's stupidity that you got the opportunity. It's our duty as shinigami to make sure fate runs smoothly; That people who are meant to live continue on living and people who are meant to die…" she pressed her gun against her forehead even more as she spat out the word. "…are stripped from this world. There's no telling what will happen now that someone has actually beaten their own fate, but I can only assume nothing good will come of it. I'm doing the whole world a favor by getting rid of you."

"I…I'll come back!" Ritsu shouted. "I've done it before, and I'll do it again! The human ability-"

"The human ability is close to nothing when put against the powers of a god," Alexis cut her off. "Kevin is lazy and sloppy in his methods, but that's what happens when you use such weak weapons to do your bidding. I, on the other hand, actually give a damn about my work and believe me, I'll make damn sure this will be the last world you see." Ritsu opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came to her. Her mind was totally blank, it's contents emptied out by fear.

"No final words?" Alexis asked with a cruel sneer. "That's quite alright with me, the sooner I clean out the trash the better." Without another word, Alexis pulled the trigger, blood flying from where the bullet exited her skull.

"Poor, poor Ritsu," Alexis sighed. "She couldn't take the loss of the one she loved the most and jumped to her death from the school roof to be with him in death." She pushed Ritsu's limp body over the guardrail, turning around from the edge just as her body hit the ground. And as soon as she turned she came face to face with Kevin, who gave her a smirk.

"I guess this means there are no hard feelings, then?" He chuckled.

"Far from it- it's hard to get over someone hacking you to pieces," Alexis grunted, pocketing her pistol. "I simply got rid of that girl because it needed to be done. The fact she defied fate, the fact it's your fault and the fact her friends are still alive is still heavily resting on your shoulders and I'd rather be chopped to bits again before I bother to help you with that burden." She walked passed him, the two of them sharing a hateful glance.

"Bitch," he hissed as she passed him.

"Oh, I know. And since I know how much you love lessons, let this be a lesson to you," she told him coldly. "That the next time you're given an assignment, actually bother to do your job correctly."

* * *

"I still can't believe she's gone," Mio muttered as the four remaining members of the light music club stood before Ritsu's grave. They'd come to leave a fresh bouquet of flowers along with their usual visit. "After all that talk about defying fate, she had to throw her life away." Tears began to sting her eyes as Azusa rested her hand on her shoulder.

"Whatever reasons she had for leaving, I know Ritsu would hate for us all to go on being so sad," she said.

"I know… it just seems strange without he here," Mio hiccupped, furiously wiping her eyes.

"Don't worry, Mio, I'm sure Ritsu is in a better place now," Yui said, looking to the cloudy skies. "Right, Mugi?"

"No doubt," Mugi said, her tone of voice eerily dark. "And you shouldn't worry, you'll all be meeting her very soon."

"What!?" Mio gasped, whirling around just as a gunshot echoed through the air and her body was forced back before falling to the ground, a bullet buried in her skull.

"No hard feelings, everyone," Mugi said with a sweet smile that twisted into something more deranged as she spoke. "I'm just doing what my teacher told me to."

* * *

**So, another fic down, this time being a much different beast from "Magnet". "Afterschool Slaughter Time" (or "Afternoon Slaughter Time" as it's called on dA) was a project I started in 2009 that's still continuing to this day, obviously having spanned a couple of companion pieces and sequels. It all began with my boyfriend, Shun, and his hatred toward Mio and his equal attraction toward Ritsu. Kevin was there, so we threw him in, too, because why not? That, somehow, managed to spawn a series so crazily, randomly violent, it still leaves me shocked that it exists. But I'm glad it does, and I hope you're glad, too. Please continue to enjoy further installments of the "Slaughter Series", there will be more to come- more random violence and nonsensical twists for all! **

**-Zabu  
**


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